FROM 

John Byrne & Co. 

LAW BOOKS 
1324 Ey« StrMt N. W. 
WASHINGTON, D.C 




Glass 

Book 



THE 

UNJUST JUDGE 

OR, 



THE EVILS OF INTEMPERANCE ON JUDGES, 
LAWYERS, AND POLITICIANS. 



BY A MEMBER OF THE OHIO BAR. 



Go hear what I have heard— 

The sobs of sad despair — 
As memory feeling's founts hath stirred, 

And its revealings there 
Have told him what he might have been, 
Had he the drunkard's fate foreseen. 

An American Lady. 



MANSFIELD, 0. 

1854. 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year of onr Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, by the Author, in the Clerk's 
Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of 
Ohio. 



O c\. 



Printed in Mansfield, Ohio, at the Western Branch Book Concern of the 
Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America. 



TO GEN, S. F. CAREY, 

The Apostle of Temperance in the West, these un- 
pretending pages are inscribed. His eloquence and 
pathos, upon Temperance, are associated with our 
recollections of early school days. Before he left 
his Alma Mater, in the morning of life, he espoused 
the cause, from convictions of duty ; and again 
and again have we heard the old college hail ring 
with his eloquent voice upon this measure, then in 
its infancy, and at a time when very much moral 
courage was requisite to face the tornado raised 
by an effort to check the fearful ruin. After en- 
tering upon the more active duties of life, he gave 
much, of his time, talents and energy, to the cause, 
and is now growing gray fighting powerfully and 
effectually its battles. May he live to enjoy the 
plaudits of a redeemed and disenthralled human- 
ity. The Author, 
Mansfield^ Ohio, January 1, 1854. 



PREFACE, 

An apology might, by some, be deemed neces- 
sary for throwing before the public a work upon a 
subject which has already employed the pens of 
many of the most gifted authors of the age, yet 
there remains much, very much, to be done before 
that dreadful incubus, intemperance, is driven from 
our land. 

Great ingenuity has been displayed by the poet, 
as well as the writer of fiction, in portraying in 
glowing colors this great sin of the day, and still 
its turbid waves seem to roll on, desolating the 
brightest hopes of the human heart, little impeded 
by the hitherto obstructing barriers. 

The pulpit may become clamorous upon this 
subject, and religionists may exhaust their powers, 
without reaching the fastnesses into which this evil 
has taken refuge. If this great reformation shall 
be effected, it must receive essential and valuable 
aid /rom a different direction. The destiny of this 
moral enterprise is now, to a very great extent, in 



PREFACE. 



the hands of lawyers, judges, and politicians ; their 
action involves the fate of this philanthropic meas- 
ure; and hence, our characters are judges, mem- 
bers of the bar, and politicians. Even a superfi- 
cial glance at the springs of society, will teach us 
that lawyers and politicians not only make and 
enforce our laws, but manufacture a public senti- 
ment that sustains or repeals those laws at their 
pleasure; — 

'• Unjust decrees they make, and call them ju 
And we submit to them — because we must." 

— and, therefore, the necessity of making allies of 
that class of men. It would be quite as sensible to 
throw across a structure, wtih the view of drying 
up the deep, wide, and rapid current of the mighty 
river at the point where it mingles its waters with. 
and becomes lost in the ocean, instead of cutting 
off the numerous streams and fountains that lent 
it power and force, as to attempt to stay the pro- 
gress of intemperance by moral suasion with the 
masses. THis stream of burning lava that is, as with 
the besom of destruction, sweeping over the land, 
must be cut off at its source ; and who can deny that 
the influence of the bar and the bench has ever been 
one of its main tributaries? 

In the following pages we have drawn upon the 
bench, the bar, and the political arena, for materi- 



p 



PREFACE. 7 

al out of which to weave our web ; and though 
some passages may appear pointed and personal, 
we disclaim any such intention, but insist that they 
are leveled at the idiosyncrasy of a class, and not 
at individuals. 

A desire to arrest the attention of the legal pro- 
fession and politicians, and fix it upon the noble 
enterprise of staying the tide of moral death that 
is devastating the best interests of society, has 
dictated the following work. If it shall fall short 
of the object of our aim, we shall draw consolation 
from the conscious integrity of our intentions. 

The Author. 

Mansfield, Ohio, January 1, 1854, 






CHAPTER I. 

This, above all, to thine ownself be true, 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou cans't not then be false to any man. 

Shalcspear. 

" What is the condition of your health and spir- 
its," said Leblond, as with a careless air, he en- 
tered the room of Judge Jones. 

" My spirits are at rather alow ebb," replied the 
Judge. " Ihavebeenretrospecting; ay, and pros- 
pecting too, since we separated last evening. Con- 
science, the great regulator of human actions, al- 
ways troublesome on such occasions, has been do- 
ing its work. I sought oblivion in balmy sleep, 
but the god of dreams refused to come to my aid, 
or to harken to my appeals. And to consummate 
my misery, I've received, this morning, an item of 
news from a friend and highly respectable member 
of the bar, in the Northern part of the State, which 
distresses me beyond measure." Handing the 
letter to Leblond, he read as follows : 

" My Dear Jones : — 

A rumor is afloat here I regret most profoundly. 
It charges you with having been under the influ- 
ence of mint julips to such an extent you were 



10 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

incapable of giving the law correctly in charge to 
the jury, in the case of the State vs. Hamlin, in 
consequence of which, an innocent man has been 
convicted of murder. 

Much excitement prevails. I will exert my ut- 
most influence to allay it. Its effect upon your re- 
election is to be dreaded. 

I am, dear sir, 

Very sincerely yours, 

A. P. JEWETTV^ 

" This Hamlin," continued Judge Jones, " was 
indicted on a charge of having murdered his 
brother. The testimony was wholly circumstan- 
tial, but tended to show that the brother, who was 
an inmate of the defendant's family, had been pois- 
oned. Circumstantial testimony, when convincing 
and irresistible, is at all times more satisfactory 
than positive. While living witnesses, from inter- 
ested or malicious motives, may falsify; an unbro- 
ken chain of circumstances pointing convincingly 
to the guilt or innocence of the defendant, may be 
safely relied upon in the most important criminal, 
as well as civil, cases ; but always dangerous when 
ambiguous or disconnected, and has ever been re- 
garded by enlightened jurists, with suspicion and 
distrust. Bating one or two circumstances of 
doubtful character, there was no evidence of the 
defendant's guilt. Of the utter groundlessness of 
the charge, I entertained not even a doubt, and 
was two or three times, during the trial, upon the 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 11 

eve of requesting the Prosecutor to nolle prosequi 
his indictment, but permitted the case to progress 
until the testimony on both sides closed. While 
counsel were engaged in the argument of the cause 
to the jtiry, I was absent, intending after my re- 
turn to the bench, to charge the jury that the tes- 
timony was entirely insufficient upon which to 
found a verdict of guilt ; and of course, upon my 
return, I charged the jury; but of that I have only 
a vague and indistinct recollection. The evidence 
of guilt, though slight, involved some of the most 
intricate and interesting questions known to med- 
ical jurisprudence, and very liable to be misunder- 
stood by the jury, without a clear, concise, and ex- 
plicit charge from the court ; yet I am unable to 
recall a single idea, or even a single sentence, I 
gave in charge to that jury. All that, however, 
might have been corrected had '-Richard been him- 
self again, 5 ' before the final adjournment of the 
court. I could have, upon motion, granted anew 
trial ; but true to the instincts of insanity, I re- 
mained deaf to all intercession." 

"Well, Judge, that is rather an unfortunate oc- 
currence, and you have my prayers that it may 
never again happen. I suppose, during the argu- 
ment of the case you were out ' liquoring up.' You 
must learn to touch modestly upon such occasions/" 

"Oh! it is more than unfortunate," said -the 
Judge; "it is criminal, highly criminal! Haul 
dealt out the fatal drug which so tragically termi- 



12 THE UNJL\ST JUDGE. 

nated the life of one of the most brilliant young 
men in that part of the State, I could not have 
suffered more from conscious guilt; and as for 
your admonition, it does not go far enough, I 
ought not to have, under the circumstances; in- 
dulged at all. It is the most difficult of all under- 
takings for a man, already under the influence of 
liquor, to moderate, or to keep himself within 
bounds." 

Leblond here interrupted the Judge, by remark- 
ing, that as to the effect it would have upon his 
re-election, that was all fudge — a mere chimera of 
Jewett's brain — but if adroitly managed, could be 
made to tell powerfully in his favor — would se- 
cure his election beyond the possibility of a 
doubt ! " Why," continued he, " rally around 
your standard those of all parties whose sympa- 
thies are with the hero of mint julip, and they 
might as well hope to pluck yonder sun from 
the heavens, as to attempt your defeat, under any 
circumstances. Their name is legion, and their 
influence is beyond conception." 

" Though defeat," said the Judge, " from a 
charge so grave would necessarily involve loss of 
character, and my ultimate ruin, I would consider 
it as dust in the balance, when compared with the 
perpetual consciousness I shall carry with me, of 
having been intrusted with power and position, and 
that while in the exercise of that power I became 
recreant to the trust — lost sight of duty, and was 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 13 

guilty of judicial murder — worse than maliciously 
imbruing my hands in the blood of a fellow-be- 
ing." 

* The fearful pangs of the deepest remorse had 
seized the Judge, and was drinking up his very 
blood. The more he contemplated his unfaithful- 
ness, the more criminal it appeared to him, until he 
knew not how to act, or what disposition to make 
of himself. 

Jones was formed, intellectually and physically, 
in nature's finest mould. The son of wealthy an- 
cestors, he had been cradled in the lap of luxury 
and affluence — had received a finished classical 
and legal education, and had but fairly entered 
upon the duties of the legal profession when he 
was called, by the almost unanimous voice of the 
people, to a seat upon the Supreme bench of his 
native State, with high hopes and a soul as pure — 
as spotless as the ermine that enveloped him. 

Judge Jones, in company with Leblond and sev- 
eral other distinguished members of the bar and 
politicians, had, during the previous evening, been 
discussing law, politics, and matters and things in 
general, over a basket of sparkling Catawba, little 
dreaming of the extent of the terrible tempest that 
was about to pervade his soul — desolate his peace, 
and drive him to the verge of madness. 

At the close of his interview with Leblond, Judge 
Jones repaired to the Court room and adjourned 
the Court sine die, amid the wonder and amazement 



14 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

of the bar, under the pretence of important domes- 
tic duties which imperiously demanded his atten- 
tion at home- -ordered his carriage, and was soon 
on his way to the pleasant village of B. in tTie 
Southern part of the State, where he expected to 
meet a woman, u beautiful as the houris," who had 
" blessed him with her love and made him the fa- 
ther of her children.*' But, with his haggard coun- 
tenance and perturbed feelings, how was he to 
meet the amiable partner of his weal and his woe, 
was a question that had not until now occurred to 
him. He determined to acquaint her with all the 
facts and circumstances connected with this most 
unpleasant affair, and then consoled himself with 
the reflection that his devoted wife, whom he re- 
garded as the very impersonation of all that was 
good and lovely, would at least sympathize with 
him, if she did not pour balm into his wounded 
heart and administer to his lascerated feelings, 
and in the extacy of the moment he exclaimed — 

"A wife ! Ah, gentle deities ! can he 
Who has a wife e're feel adversity ? " 

But how fitful is hope, though the anchor of the 
soul, and without which life, from the cradle to the 
tomb, would be a dreary passage — a dense dark- 
ness, without a ray of light to cheer us on our dis- 
mal way. The bliss of hope is often short lived as 
the meteor's flash, which, when extinguished, tends 
to make the darkness more keenly felt. When 
hope ceases to illumine our path, despair occupies 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 15 

its place, in degree proportioned to the fervency 
of the former occupant. 

Home gained, the horses were handed over to 
the servant, and the Judge entered his mansion, 
upon the threshhold of which he was met by his 
smiling and faithful wife, and two or three little 
prattling pledges of their love, with " pa's turn, 
pa's turn !" In the midst of this friendly greet- 
ing, the following lines occurred to him — 

" Hope ! fortune's chea^ng lottery, 

Where, for one prize, an hundred blanks there be.' J 

That from which he had hoped produced torture 
more excrutiating than the rack. The Judge was 
the soul of honor, and he felt himself degraded — 
unworthy of such unmeasured devotion and affec- 
tion. 

Sink a man in his own estimation and you carry, 
unerringly, the fearful havoc of certain ruin into 
his future hopes and prospects, more effectually 
than if you rob him of the confidence and regard 
of the entire human family. 

The condition of the Judge's feelings were not 
long unobserved by the affectionate eye of Mrs. 
Jones, who immediately, in the kindest and most 
amiable manner possible, set about ascertaining 
k the cause. He fully unbosomed himself to her, 
and she supposing, what was the fact, that it was 
his first flagrant departure from the path of integ- 
rity, attempted to sooth his crushed feelings as 
none but fond and doting wife know : 



16 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" My dear, you have your own forgiveness — you 
have mine. Ask and obtain God's, who giveth freely 
and upbraideth none, and then console yourself 
with the thought, that though to err is human, you 
are not fated to a repetition of this unfortunate 
and disagreeable affair. Your conduct has been 
exemplary, and your character unsullied from early 
childhood to the present. Your most inveterate 
foes, ever ready to lend their aid to your prejudice^ 
have not hitherto dared lisp a word derogatory 
to your moral character ; for this reason, commu- 
nity will be slow to give credence to any rumors 
that may grow out of this unhappy difficulty, and 
no man, whose esteem and regard are worth re- 
taining, will attach any importance to your having 
this once been so foolish as to permit yourself to 
become intoxicated. If this is your last offence, 
as I know it will be, it w r ill neither impair your in- 
fluence nor your standing among your political 
friends. May I now entertain the hope you will 
swear upon the altar of our affections that you 
will never again touch, taste, or handle, the intox- 
icating cup ? " 

" I swear," said the Judge. " Though that may 
save yourself and these dear little cherubs from 
penury and want — from wretchedness and woe, — 
tell me, oh! say how am I to snatch my unfortunate 
victim from the ignominious scaffold? A doomed 
man, around whom a tender daughter's affections 
are convulsively bound — for whom a wife's heart 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 17 

is bleeding at every pore ; an innocent man — from 
this cruel, this undeserved fate. Will my reforma- 
tion rescue this injured, this wretched man, from 
shame, infamy, degradation and death ? It will 
save those immediately dependent upon me for 
character and support ; but, alas ! alas ! it is im- 
potent to save him, for whose safety and redemp- 
tion, [ would separate with every dollar I have on 
earth — even death would be a welcome messen- 
ger, if by the sacrifice Hamlin could be restored to 
his rights, to safety, to his friends ; and I relieved 
from this bitter, biting remorse." 

" Is frequent drinking a common habit among 
the members of the bar?" remarked Mrs. Jones. 
She had, in this inquiry, the two-fold object of as- 
certaining the extent of the temptation to which 
her husband (who was constantly mixing with le- 
gal gentlemen in different parts of the State,) 
would be submitted, and to divert his mind grad- 
ually from the contemplation of a subject which 
was so well calculated to destroy his peace. 

" There are many exceptions, but I regret the 
truth compels me to admit that a very large ma- 
jority of the members of the bar, everywhere, are 
in the habit of tippling," said the Judge. 

" That is most strange and unaccountable," re- 
plied Mrs. Jones; "as I have always regarded 
lawyers as far-seeing and sagacfous men ; men 
well acquainted with the springs of human action 
— constantly on the look-out for breakers^ as we 



18 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

sometimes hear them term it — seldom allowing 
themselves to become entangled in the meshes of 
trouble of any description." 

" Your views of the profession are correct," said 
the Judge. " The nature of their pursuits make 
them the kind of men you describe. It is their 
itinerant and social habits that make them incline 
to this sin, which is, in its incipient stages at least, 
if not through its entire course, a social vice. The 
younger members of the bar, more particularly, 
are all more or less addicted to it. Some, as age 
increases, drink less, jyid finally quit entirely ; 
while others drink more and more, until they go 
over the dam. The vice has made heavy drafts 
upon the profession. It has carried off many of its 
brightest ornaments." 

tc 'Tis sad," said Mrs. Jones, " to see men in any 
condition in life, contracting habits the only ten- 
dency of which is to destroy; but to see young 
men, in the morning of a bright future, prostitut- 
ing cultivated minds — men who are to be our fu- 
ture legislators, governors, Judges and high public 
functionaries, is a fearful spectacle ; one over which 
humanity drops the sympathetic tear." 

"It is a most insidious vice," said the Judge. " Its 
footsteps are not. heard — its advance not antici- 
pated until its victim is in its fatal coil. Lawyers are 
more exposed % to this vice than other men, for an- 
other reason," continued the Judge. " They have 
more self-reliance than others possess. This grows 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 19 

out of their pursuits. Their business is to man- 
age and control, not only their own affairs, but that 
of others, and have more confidence in their own 
powers. Intimate to a young lawyer, or even an 
old one, that he is nearing the whirlpool; that he 
had better cast anchor and ascertain his latitude 
and longitude, and he is insulted, however remote 
the allusion, or delicately made. He regards it as 
an impeachment of his skill and ability — his feel- 
ings are wounded, and he, probably, alienated for- 
ever from a friend." 

Judge Jones now arose and walked the room in 
silence for nearly an hour, while Mrs. Jones would 
occasionally attempt to break in upon his medita- 
tions by interrogatories, but he answered none, 
and appeared unconscious of her presence. At 
length he exclaimed, u In less than seventy-two 
hours from this time, Hamlin expiates upon the 
scaffold, a crime I am convinced, he did not com- 
mit. Torn from the embrace of fond and depen- 
dent friends, and launched into eternity, for aught 
I know, with all his sins upon his head ! Horrible ! 
Horrible ! ! Who is to deliver me from this excru- 
ciating remorse ?" 

Mrs. Jones, in the meantime, had become ex- 
ceedingly alarmed for the fate of her husband. 
Though she fully appreciated the strength and 
vigor of his intellect, yet she feared the fierce con- 
tention of conflicting emotions might drive his 

mind from its balance, and possibly, permanently 

2* 



20 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

destroy its equilibrium. Suppressing every ap- 
pearance of alarm or excitement, she drew upon 
the fertile resources common to women of culti- 
vated intellects, by modestly suggesting, to the 
Judge the propriety of seeking executive clemency 
in behalf of Hamlin. 

A gleam of light flashed across his disturbed 
mind, and he cried out, c - Why did not that thought 
occur to me ? By heavens, he can yet be saved ! ''' 
Ordered his carriage, and was soon at the top of 
his speed, on his errand of mercy, to the seat of 
government, 



CHAPTER II. 

Perseverance is a Roman virtue, 

That wins each god-like act, and plucks success 
r.ven from the spear-proof crest of rugged danger. 

Havard. 

On leaving Judge Jones, Leblond returned to his 
office. He had closed the business of a protrac- 
ted and laborious term of court, in which he had 
won golden opinions and reaped a rich harvest in 
the shape of numerous and heavy retainers. Af- 
ter depositing his green bag, and adjusting and 
arranging in pidgeon-holes numerous notes, bills, 
papers, and briefs, he threw himself into an armed 
chair — his feet upon a ta,ble — lighted a cigar, -and 
amid 

-'Thick curling clouds 

Of smoke around his reeking temples" — ■ 

began the following soliloquy : " Well, I have done 
a fine business this term — have been engaged in 
every cause of importance tried at bar, and have 
succeeded, in each, beyond my most sanguine ex- 
pectations. This will cause the envy of my friends 
as well as my enemies. Though strange, yet true, 
that however anxious a friend may be for the suc- 
cess of another, as soon as that success is attained. 



22 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

he will imagine its possessor is assuming airs and 
manifesting a feeling of superiority that wounds 
his pride, and frequently transforms him from a 
friend, into an inveterate enemy ; but such is the 
human heart. I must avoid every thing that has 
the slightest appearance of vanity, and if I can re- 
tain my friends, I certainly care but little how much 
envy tortures my enemies. To succeed, and to 
triumph over them, is quite a harmless method of 
punishing them ; one to which the most rigid mor- 
alist can take no exceptions. 

" If Amelia could but know how fate was smiling 
upon me, — ye gods ! — I guess she would regard me 
as more than " a poor and unlettered boy." I would 
have freely given one half of my fees for the term, 
if that lovely girl could have been present and wit- 
nessed my display and my triumph, (after several 
years of toil and privation) particularly in that case 
for breach of marriage promise. But, in the ab- 
sence of that gratification, 1 must content myself 
with the consolation afforded from a large verdict, 
one half of which, in the shape of a thousand doMl 
lar draft, is in my breeches pocket, and I the happy 
owner. Had she been there, would she have turned 
up her pretty little probocis, as usual, and repeated, 
"he is a poor and unlettered boy, with a strong 
proclivity to dissipation ? " No, sir-ee ! She would 
have done no such thing. She loved me; of that 
I have never entertained a serious doubt. It was 
her austere and aristocratic father who was inca- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 23 

pable of appreciating merit under a homely garb. 
The truth of this sentiment, from Cowper, ha.- 
probably never dawned upon his unenlightened 
mind : 

c Xo soil like poverty for growth, divine 
As leanest land supplies the richest wine." 

It has, doubtless, never occurred to the inflated old 
toad, that our higher faculties are developed and 
strengthened by exposure to the blasts of adversi- 
ty j while the enervating effects of wealth and lux 
ury are often entailed upon our progeny. He can 
look with as much cool contempt upon the poor 
and humble, as if he had never himself shivered in 
the cold, damp shades of extreme poverty. He has 
forgotten that poverty nerved his arm — lent 
strength to his purposes, and enabled him to shake 
it off and acquire immense possessions. He has 
forgotten that he was once. among the " knights of 
the last," and as humble a member as could be 
found in a week's travel. He has, I suppose, ob- 
literated from his memory the fact, that had he 
paid promptly, the pittance due his over-taxed op- 
eratives, he would not have had the means of en- 
gaging in speculations which turned him up a for- 
tune. This aping the aristocrat is seen every day, 
but it always displays a great want of sense, and 
the thing that does it always excites more sympa- 
thy for his weakness than envy for his position. 

" When I visit my father, and the home of my 
boyhood, having heard of my fame and distinction, 



24 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

she may yet encourage my aspirations. If so, the 
cup of my happiness will be overflowing; if not, I 
may have occasion to touch the dormant sensibil- 
ities of the old 6l knight of the last." He may find 
that he can't tread upon me with impunity, as he 
has done in other days. 

" Now," continued Leblond, " I mustmal^e some 
arrangements for the coming campaign. Before I 
leave, I must deposite with some eight or ten gro- 
cery-keepers, in each county in the Congressional 
District, a sum sufficient to carry the liquor influ- 
ence. That secured, defeat must necessarily stare 
my amiable friend, Jedediah Barber, in the face; 
and I shall regard my election as a fixed fact. — 
To-morrow evening we will have a bar supper, 
crack a few bottles, and make merry. I like these 
banquets ; they bring us Solons of the law together, 
where the asperities and bitter feeling engendered 
by acrimonious conflicts, incident to the profession, 
are smoothed down and varnished over. Some 
danger to be apprehended from the " flowing 
bowl," as we generally become a little mellow, but 
our good sense must shield us. Theologians tell 
us temptations strengthen virtue ; if so," continued 
he, " I must confess, I am unable to see the phi- 
losophy of c - lead us not into temptation,", unless 
they mean that temptation only strengthens virtue 
when successfully resisted." 

Leblond was from the very vale of obscurity. — 
His parents in extreme indigence, were wholly un- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 25 

able to afford him the means of even a common 
English education. Necessity, therefore, compelled 
him to leave the parental roof at the tender age of 
twelve, with ardent aspirations for distinction, gui- 
ded in the rugged path of life alone by his lofty 
intellect and intuitive sense of right and wrong. 
It is seldom that one so young is ambitious of fu- 
ture distinction. But his mother, a woman of more 
than ordinary intellect, fair education, and consid- 
erable reading, had taught him to read almost as 
soon as he could distinctly articulate words. It 
was her common practice to devote some three 
hours, out of every twenty-four, to the instruction 
of her son. When other duties drew unusually 
heavy upon her time, which was not unfrequent, 
she spent a portion of those hours that other moth- 
ers generally give to sleep and repose, to the moral 
and intellectual culture of her boy, pointing him 
frequently to illustrious characters living, as well 
as those who had left their impress upon time and 
gone to their reward, and would stimulate him to 
emulate their example. During the three years 
previous to his leaving home, the daily aliment of 
his soul was ambition. 

Somewhat remote from home, he entered into 
the employ of one of nature's noblemen — an hon- 
est cultivator of the soil. This connection, which 
lasted for about the period of two years, was not 
without its advantages to young Leblond. Though 
the pecuniary emolument arising from it was 



26 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

scarcely sufficient to furnish him with the coarsest 
clothing, he was taught industry and integrity, 
which lie at the foundation of success in every pur- 
suit in life. 

Before leaving home, his mother had taught him 
to right a legible hand, and therefore required him 
to write her two letters per week, and embrace the 
first opportunity that presented, of sending them 
to her by private conveyance. These she would 
sometimes receive in packages of seven or eight 
at once, owing to the want of opportunity to send 
them at the time of writing. When they arrived, 
she would invariably answer them at the earliest 
possible moment. One of those replies was as 
follows : 

" My Dear Sox : — Your package of letters 
came to hand to-day, and their perusal afforded 
us much pleasure ; p particularly, the one in which 
you mention your regular attendance upon Sab- 
bath School and your success in memorizing scrip- 
ture. The Bible is the will of heaven concerning 
us, and you cannot become to familiar with it. Your 
father and I have each earned a little money, since 
you left, and all that we can spare of it shall be 
expended in books, of my selecting, which we will 
send you soon. 

Could you know how much we enjoy from the 
hope that you will constitute a firm prop, upon 
which we can safely lean in our declining years, 
you would not spend a moment in idleness, but 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 27 

continue to improve your mind with all the assiduity 
of one of whom the future will require great and 
noble deeds. There is a bright future before you. 
Prepare for it. The world will need your talents, 
and as soon as you are prepared to perform valu- 
able services, you will not be permitted long to re- 
main in obscurity. Your qualifications will soon 
be seen and appreciated by a discerning public, 
and you invited to the performance of important 
labor. Think of this when you are in the field, and 
elsewhere at your toil, and let it impel you to in- 
cessant and laborious study. You will have the 
same claims to be President of this republic that 
any other man can possess — the intellectual and 
moral qualities. No man, in this country, can have 
any claims for high and distinguished political 
positions, other than a peculiar fitness to fill the 
place and serve the people with ability. 

" I have many things to write, but will only add, 
read — read and think, and think and observe all 
that is going on around you, without seeming to 
notice anything; and make it a rule to throw 
every man, woman, and child, with whom you come 
in contact, under contribution for knowledge, and 
you must necessarily become useful and distin- 
guished. Your Mother." 

At the expiration of his two years' labor upon 
the farm, he returned home ; and soon after, en- 
tered a small retail store, in the neighborhood of 
his nativity, without any definite contract for wa~ 



28 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

ges, relying upon the integrity of his employer and 
his determination to make himself useful; where 
he remained for the period of four years. During 
business hours he devoted his undivided attention to 
the interest of his employer, and consequently, be- 
came highly esteemed, not only by the proprietor 
of the establishment, but the favorite clerk of the 
village. His habit was, immediately after busi- 
ness hours closed, to retire to his private room, 
where he had a small but well selected library, and 
when his health would permit, remained there, 
pouring over his books until one, and occasionally, 
two o'clock in the morning. And thus, in the 
course of the four years, he acquired an accurate 
knowledge of English Grammar, Geography, Arith- 
metic, and Algebra, together with considerable 
knowledge of history. 

At the close of his apprenticeship, with improved 
manners, business habits of the first order, and 
four hundred dollars in his pocket, he took up his 
line of march for college ; where, by the most rigid 
economy, he was enabled to remain for about three 
years. Leblond acquired, during the period he 
was in school, about the same usually accomplished 
by a college routine ; and at the age of twenty-one, 
found himself in possession of a vigorous and well 
disciplined intellect, but without means — indeed, 
in abject poverty. His education now completed 
to the extent of his means he determined to enter- 
upon the study of the law, and accordingly ap- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 29 

plied to Sibley, a lawyer alike distinguished for 
his legal acumen and oratorical powers ; but not 
less distinguished for his habits of tippling. 

Sibley, once the pride of a large circle of friends, 
with a practice that bid fair to make him speedily 
rich, from the known and acknowledged social hab- 
its of the bar, had gradually contracted the ruin- 
ous habit of occasional dram-drinking, was now 
in the whirlpool of that most destructive vice ; in 
iminent danger of gliding over the cataract. With- 
out practice — without friends — without character, 
and destitute of property, he supposed that a stu- 
dent of Leblond's superior intellect and integrity, 
would attach some importance to himself, and was 
therefore induced to receive him into his office. 

Leblond remained two years in Sibley's office, 
and assiduously studied the law 7 , occasionally teach- 
ing or writing in some of the public offices, suffi- 
cient to keep soul and body together, and was 
finally admitted to the bar with as bright prospects 
as talent of a high order, a well stored, highly cul- 
tivated, nicely trained mind could possibly harbin- 
ger. Yet, some of his more intimate friends saw, 
or imagined they saw, in his conduct, the effects 
of his association with the dissolute Sibley. 



CHAPTER III. 

Fill the bright goblet; spread the festive board ; 

Summon the gay. the noble and the fair; 
Thro' the ioud hall in joyous concert pour d, 

Let mirth and music sound the dicge of care. — Scott. 

Judge Jones reached the seat of government in 
the shortest possible time — repaired to the Govern- 
or's office, and acquainted him with the object of 
his mission. 

After having patiently heard Jones narrate the 
circumstances connected with the charge of mur- 
der, the Governor, with no little sang froid re- 
marked, "This man Hamlin, we are bound to sup- 
pose, has had a fair and impartial trial? Why 
disturb the result of that investigation ? I under- 
stand you to say, Judge, that you presided upon the 
trial of this cause. Now, Judge Jones, a lawyer of 
your ability ought not to allow a man to be im- 
properly convicted. Yet if that should happen 
without evidence and in violation of right and jus- 
tice, you had a sovereign remedy for all this 
trouble." 

" Governor," interrupted the Judge, £i I have ever 
detested a Judicial tyrant; and have, therefore, in 
my administration of justice, contented myself 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 31 

with simply giving the law in charge to the jury. 
To go beyond that, would be a most unpardonable 
innovation of the peculiar province of the jury, 
and a flagrant violation of the spirit, if not of the 
letter of the constitution and laws of our State, 
which I am bound by the solemnities of an official 
oath to observe." 

The Judge had very minutely detailed to the 
Governor the testimony in the case, and his Ex- 
cellency being an able lawyer, and once a bright 
luminary of the bench which Judge Jones, with 
equal ability, had so signally disgraced w T ith ap- 
parent great carelessness, inquired of the Judge 
what he had ruled the law to be upon certain close 
and interesting points arising on the facts stated. 

This was a poser for which' Judge Jones was en- 
tirely unprepared. He stammered, evaded, and 
was silent. The Governor pressed the inquiry. 
Jones hesitated, but being incapable of the base- 
ness of falsehood, remarked: "I must have the 
frankness to admit that I know not upon what 
points, nor how I ruled the law." 

" How can that be possible ?" immediately re- 
plied the Governor. 

" Your Excellency is well aware that your honor 
and myself have a strong partiality for an occa- 
sional mint julip." 

"Mint julip h— 1, and partiality the d— 1!" 
sharply retorted the Governor ; quite as much dis- 
turbed by the allusion to his own besetting sin, as 



32 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

the outrage of Judge Jones. " Have you, by your 
infernal drunkenness, been permitting an innocent 
man, of the talent and fair fame of Hamlin, to be 
placed in this most unfortunate and terrible con- 
dition? I will pardon him instanter ; but," con- 
tinued he, " rely upon it, Judge, if a similar derelic- 
tion of duty should come under my observation, 
measures shall be taken for your immediate im- 
peachment." 

Judge Jones had passed through an ordeal which 
humbled his pride no little, but his success in pro- 
curing the pardon he regarded as a sufficient off- 
set. He, therefore, pocketed the paper and pro- 
ceeded with all possible dispatch, on his way to 
the village of N. where Hamlin was lying in irons 
awaiting his fate, between whom and which only 
twenty-eight hours now intervened. 

The Judge, subjected to many vexatious delays, 
arrived upon the railroad train, about six in the 
evening, at the village of C. where he had received 
the letter from Jewett, intending to pass directly 
on to N. and deliver to the Sheriff the pardon be- 
fore the expiration of the time assigned for the ex- 
ecution, but while at the depot during the water- 
ing operation of the train, Leblond, anxious to 
meet the Judge, made his appearance, and thus 
accosted him ; 

" I am happy indeed, sir, you have received our 
dispatch," and without giving Jones time to reply, 
Leblond continued, "we will have a sumptuous 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 33 

feast and a glorious old-fashioned time of it, to- 
night ; a perfect burst-up, and no mistake." 

" I have received no dispatch," said the Judge, 
"but regret to inform you that it is utterly impos- 
sible for me to be with you." 

" Then you have not received our dispatch," said 
Leblond. " That is very disagreeable news. I 
had hoped you received it, and were now here in 
obedience to it. We shall have an exceedingly 
pleasant time." * 

u I have no doubt of it," said the Judge, " but I 
have been to the Governor and procured a pardon 
for Hamlin, which I must proceed with, lest some 
accident may detain me; and in that event, my 
friend Hamlin and I may never meet until in the 
presence of a very different tribunal from the one 
before which you have been appearing, and I con- 
stituting." 

Leblond insisted upon Judge Jones remaining, 
and partaking of the hospitality of the bar ; and 
after exhausting every other inducement his fertile 
imagination could conceive of, finally remarked, 
that the train would leave at six in the morning, 
which would afford him ample time to reach N. 
before the execution could take place ; and that, of 
course, was all that Jones could desire ; and add- 
ed, if the Judge would consent to remain, he would 
accompany him to N. the next morning, and that 
was no inconsiderable inducement to a gentleman 
fond of good company. 



34 THE UXJUST JUDGE. 

After considerable hesitation, and expressing to 
Leblond many doubts, as to the propriety of his 
remaining over, permitted his baggage to be car- 
ried to the hotel. 

About eight that evening, Judge Jones was con- 
ducted, by Leblond, into a room most brilliantly 
lighted, in which was a table groaning under the 
weight of every luxury of the season, and inter- 
spercee plentifully among the dishes, were numer- 
ous well filled bottles, of every size and complexion, 
containing liquors of every character and descrip- 
tion, from sparkling champaign down to old Mo- 
nogahela whiskey. 

If demons and lost spirits are supposed to be 
conscious of what is transpiring on earth, and ca- 
pable of rejoicing at the danger and depravity of 
those who are upon the probationary side of the 
spirit land, what a general jubilee there must be 
in perdition, over these drunken banquets. 

''• Ah Brandy, Brandy ; bane of life. 
Spring of tumult., source of strife; 
Could I but half thy curses tell, 
The wise would wish thee safe in hell." 

Our friends, numbering twenty-five lawyers, 
three judges, and several officers of court, all seated 
around the festive board, now partook bountifully 
of the viands, spread in rich luxuriance before 
them, nor did they fail to make heavy draughts 
upon the bottled death that graced the repast. 

The cloth removed, Judge Jones was called upon 
to preside, but positively refused. His feelings 



THfc UNJUST JUDGE. 35 

were not in unison with the occasion. His active 
mind was, alternately, in the past and the future, 
engaged in other matters of more weighty moment. 
— the bacchanalian revelry around him had but lit- 
tle of his sympathy. What would he not have 
given could he, on that evening, after he had time 
for thought and reflection, been present with Ham- 
lin in his solitary cell, relieving him from the dread 
horror of impending dissolution? But — 

—-"Experience teaches us 

That resolution 's a sole help at need. " 

This resolution the Judge lacked, and hence he 
was drunk on the Hamlin trial. He wanted reso- 
lution when he was met by Leblond, at the depot; 
and hence he was at the bar supper. He lacked 
resolution when invited to preside over the dis- 
graceful scenes of that evening ; hence the post of 
honor was conferred upon him. 

A long list of unfortunate individuals who have 
been guilty of imprudence, of folly ; ay, of crime; 
would have been saved had they been taught, in 
early life, the importance of decision of character, 
resolution, and firmness of purpose. 

" The indications are that we shall have — 

'•' The feast of reason and the flow of soul," 
said Judge Alban. 

" Rather a feast of nonsense and a flow of whis- 
key," whispered Judge Jones. 

" Where is Barber,' 1 enquired some one present, 

" he is the soul of sociality and conviviality, and 
3* 



36 THE UNJUST JUDGE-. 

ought to have been here. His absence creates 
quite a vacuum." 

Leblond took advantage of the occasion, by ac- 
rimoniously charging Barber with giving in his ad- 
hesion to the temperance organizations of the day, 
and wound up by remarking, that he had actually 
become one of the most excited fanatics in the en- 
tire circle of his acquaintance ; that it was really 
difficult to determine to what lengths he would not 
go upon that and kindred fanaticism: that he was 
quite to illiberal to enjoy a tete-a-tete with a few 
friends, or even a good supper, when the fames of 
alcohol were about the board. 

Judge Jones repaired to the head of the table, 
and took his seat as president, and thereupon 
drank the following toast: — 

"The Bar — a pioneer in the march of mind. In 
science and in morals it occupies the front rank. — ■ 
It has ever been conspicuous for its influence, in- 
telligence, integrity, and liberality." 

To which all quaffed their glasses and responded 
in three long, loud, and deafening cheers. 

Jones here turned and whispered to Leblond, 
that the bar was not over-stocked with morality, 
taking that, and similar occasions, as a criterion 
by which to estimate it. 

Leblond replied, that no class of men could in 
truth, boast of a purer morality than the bar. That 
their intercourse with their clients, and with soci- 
ety generally, would bear the test of the most rigid 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 3? 

scrutiny, and would compare more than favorably, 
with any portion of our fellow-citizens. 

"So far as your views of the integrity of the bar 
are concerned, you are correct," said the Judge. 
; * But I am at a loss to know by what rule in ethics 
you would make drunkenness a virtue ; and dis- 
guise the fact as you may, the bar is fond of spree- 
ing, and drinks too much." 

Leblond was now loudly called to give a senti- 
ment, and anxious to deal a blow T at his absent com- 
petitor for Congress, drank the following toast : 

Ci The lawyer who hasmt sufficient nerve to face 
this array of bottles is unworthy of public confi- 
dence.'' 

Judge Aiban, and several others, by this time 
quite '•mellow,'* simultaneously hiccoughed, "thai 
am a fact;" and all joined in a boisterous laugh- 
ter except Judge Jones, who felt that it would have 
been better for himself, for Hamlin, and the public, 
if he had lacked upon that trial the rascally virtue 
of facing a mint julip. 

But, as hilarity and uproarious joy constituted 
the order of the evening, and Judge Jones feeling 
somewhat comfortable over his pardon, aided by 
an occasional bumper, let himself down — and still 
lower — until finally he became one of them. 

The scene soon began to beggar description ! 
While some were hurrahing for Jackson, for old 
Zack, for Matty Van, for Lundy's Lane — others 
were attempting repartee and speech-making. At 



31 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

this moment, the proprietor of the hotel, who had 
been absent during the evening, made his appear- 
ance at the door, and stood for a few moments, 
unobserved by his drunken patrons. Cowper 
says that — 

"Even bacchanalian madness has its charms," 

But it had no charms for their worthy host, who. 
after viewing the scene before him, for a brief pe- 
riod, turned in disgust, and remarked to a friend : 
" It is claimed that Judges and lawyers are privi- 
leged characters, but that transcends all privilege. 
These are " priests who minister at the altar in the 
sacred temple of human justice." These are the 
men who make the laws and administer them. — ■ 
These are the men who give tone and character to 
society, and rule the political world. I pray I may 
ever be protected from such justice, from such laws 
and from such rule. The Bar,' 1 continued he, "are 
usually educated, and from the nature of their pur- 
suits, become early acquainted with human nature. 
— are generally good public speakers — acquire 
confidence in themselves — take the lead in politics, 
and all the great enterprises that favor the growth, 
prosperity and happiness of our country. With 
some three exceptions, all the Presidents of the 
United States have been lawyers, and their Cabi- 
nets have been lawyers ; forty-nine fiftieths of all 
our United States Senators have been lawyers ; our 
diplomatic corps has been filled with lawyers ; in 
short," continued he, " all our great statesmen and 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 39 

distinguished men, have been lawyers; and yet, 
this is a fair specimen of their habits." 

Though none had passed out of the room, it was 
observed the crowd began to lessen, and upon ex- 
amination, Judge Alban, Prosecutor Lahm, the 
Sheriff, and a number of others, were under the 
table and in the corners of the hall, locked in the 
arms of morpheus. 

Two of these disciples of Lycurgus, less up than 
some, and less down than others, aided Jones to 
his sleeping apartment for the remainder of the 
night; where, in unconscious stupor, he remained 
until after the departure of the six o'clock train 
the next morning:. 






CHAPTER IV. 

A politician. Proteus-like, must alter 
His face and habit, and like water, seem 
Of the same color that the vessel is 
That doth contain it, varying his form,. 
"With the chameleon, at each object's change. 

Mason . 

Barber was an eminent lawyer, and some years 
Leblond' s senior. A man of kind impulses, strict 
integrity, and temperate in all things. Never 
stooped to baseness, nor would he allow another 
to be guilty of meanness with impunity when he 
was the object of attack. He had heard of Le- 
blond's toast, and as it had been publicly made, 
he supposed that even magnanimity did not re- 
quire him to go privately to Leblond and request 
a retraction, but prepared for the press, and pub- 
lished in a newspaper of the village, the following 
article : 

" Lucius Leblond, Esa : 

Sir: — Because we are competitors for the 
same office, it does not necessarily imply that we 
should engage in wholesale and retail slander and 
detraction of each other. I have hitherto supposed, 
that among gentlemen, the sanctity of private 
character was never invaded, even in warm politi- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 41 

cal contests. It is barely possible I may have been 
in error all my life upon this subject. 

I am a candidate, and should the people regard 
me as " honest and capable," and elect me, I shall 
be highly gratified ; but if success is to be at the 
cost and expense of a sacrifice of principle — if, in 
order to succeed, I must lay off the gentleman and 
assume the ruffian, then I shall not succeed. 

'•' Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall." 

I infinitely prefer the latter. Will you occupy the 
same platform ? If so, I have no fear as to the re- 
sult. Should you, however, continue to stab me 
in the dark, as I am informed you did at the bar 
supper, a few evenings since, I shall regard you in 
your true character, and a,ct upon the principle 
that — 

Ci Kites, hawks and wolves deserve their fate." 

And here I may as well say, I hope not to survive 
the day when I shall have "nerve sufficient to face" 
as many bottles as, in your opinion, would entitle 
me to "public confidence." 

Very Respectfully, 

J. BARBER." 
Leblond had been, for some time, anxious to en- 
tangle his competitor in the meshes of a personal 
difficulty, with the hope of covering his own de- 
fects, as well as obscuring the purer character and 
more elevated principles of Barber; and it was 
with that view he made the attack upon him at 
the bar supper. Leblond was a demagogue, though 



42 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

a young man of superior intellect and considera- 
ble popularity, yet he feared an open field and a 
fair fight with Barber! He, therefore, determined 
to attack him personally, and in case Barber re- 
pelled with severity the attack, to fight it out as 
best he could — turn everything to the best possi- 
ble account, and as it aproximated the close, cry 
out persecution, and in that way enlist the sympa- 
thies of a class of men whom he could not, by any 
other means, hope to reach. 

The above note from Barber furnished Leblond 
with what he deemed a sufficient excuse for attack- 
ing him personalty, in the next issue of the Ga- 
zette, as follows : 

" J. Barber, Esa: 

Sir: — In the last Gazette, you say you have 
been in error all your life if I am a gentleman. 
That you have been in error all your life few men, 
who have known you during that time, will doubt; 
and that you will continue befogged for the bal- 
ance of your days, their can be as little doubt. 

Before the campaign closes, I will enable you 
to see yourself as others see you, and that will be 
in no favorable light. You manifestly desire a 
personal quarrel. If this is your wish, you shall 
be gratified to the extent of your inclination. I 
will expose to the public gaze some of your infamy 
in your private relations and professional charac- 
ter, which will cause the blood to mantle your 
cheek if you are not an entire stranger to sensibil- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 43 

ity. How far you will then be able to avail your- 
self of advantage from an alliance with temper- 
ance organizations, will remain to be seen. 

Very Respectfully, 

L. LEBLOND." 

The Congressional District was composed mainly 
of new counties, and numerous public improve- 
ments in, and through the territory, were in a state 
of progression, and Leblond flattered himself if he 
could raise the temperance issue with Barber, he 
could defeat him with entire ease; that if he could 
rally around him the whole of the foreign popula- 
tion upon the public works, and the undivided 
liquor influence, victory must necessarily perch 
upon his banner. It was for this purpose Leblond 
sought to draw Barber out upon the temperance 
question. 

Barber was frank and honest, if possible, to a 
fault. Intending nothing but fairness, was slow 
to suspect its opposite in others. 

Feeling himself deeply agrieved by the personal 
attack of Leblond, in the last Gazette, replied to 
him as follows : 

" L. Leblond, Esa : 

Sir : — Your attack upon me, in the Gazette 
of last week, was beyond that of which I conceived 
you capable. From an intimate private and pro- 
fessional intercourse with you, I have laterly re- 



44 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

garded you as equal to any act of baseness; yet I 
could scarcely believe you an ingrate. 

" If there be a crime 

Of deeper die than all the guilty train 
Of human vices, 'tis ingratitude. " 

From me, sir, you have received more than from 
all the rest of the world. I took you by the hand 
when destitution was your only portion. With 
more than parental interest and solicitude, I watch- 
ed the buddings of what I regarded, at that time, 
of a superior intellect. While I mourned over 
your tendencies to vice and immorality, I lifted you 
into the profession which you have disgraced, and 
so long as you remain intemperate, will continue 
to disgrace. I have made you all you are, or can 
be, bating your imperfections : and what have you 
given in return but the basest ingratitude and de- 
traction ? If I have, not mistaken the signs of the 
times, you will soon be a miserable bloat ! Your 
presence will contaminate the very atmosphere in 
which you move and breathe ! ! — ci A walking pes- 
tilence — a libel upon human nature." 

In the prostitution of your talents, you do your- 
self and community great injustice. I need scarce- 
ly say, you are in the possession of sufficient in- 
tellect, if properly directed, to make yourself emi- 
nently useful. But most unfortunately for your- 
self and those with whom you are, and ever will 
be associated, you have entirely omitted the culti- 
vation of the heart and the moral faculties. When 



TfiE UNJUST JUDGE. 45 

the head has been cultivated, and moral culture 
overlooked — when the whole region of the heart 
and soul becomes a desolate waste, inhabited only 
by the fiercest passions of our nature, and over- 
grown with noxious plants, the possessor be- 
comes dangerous to the most important inter- 
ests of God and humanity, in proportion as he 
has power and vigor of intellect. 

You may blacken my character for the time be- 
ing, but the intrinsic value of virtue, like that of 
gold, cannot be impaired, though they may both 
be tarnished. The one by corroding substances, 
and the other by foul aspersion. 

My life, public and private, is now before the 
people of this Congressional District. I court a 
fair, a manly, a close, and a thorough examination 
of my every act, public and private. Sift the mat- 
ter and examine into all the particulars ; and if my 
character will not bear the touch of the most rigid 
investigation, I pledge all I hold sacred in life im- 
mediately to withdraw my name from before the 
public. Will you ; dare you, say as much ? 

Fairness is a duty we alike owe ourselves and 
the electors of our district. 

You seek, I doubt not for a base purpose, to 
draw from me an admission of an alliance with 
the temperance organizations of the district. This 
I could not do for the very plain and simple reason 
that it is not the fact. I am, however, in favor of 
temperance and sobriety in all things. But here I 



46 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

will say, I should regard the universal reign of the 
Maine law, or a prohibitory law, similar in its fea- 
tures, in every State in this Union, as an indica- 
tion that God, in the plenitude of his mercy, was 
smiling upon our highly favored Republic. Why 
we should have in common use, as a beverage, al- 
coholic drinks, from which no man can derive any 
advantage, but from which unnumbered scores are 
deriving serious detriment, while the moral atmos- 
phere, through its influence, assumes the shape of 
contagion itself, and life, happiness, intelligence 
and all the social virtues are suffering from its con- 
tact is, and ever has been to me, a profound mys- 
tery. And why a man of sober and temperate 
habits could not with as much ability and distinc- 
tion, represent the people of this district in the halls 
of our national legislature, as if he had u strong 
proclivities to dissipation," is also somewhat mys- 
terious. 

The object of your temperance allusion is dis- 
tinctly understood. But my unbounded confidence 
in the virtue and wisdom of the masses, enables 
me to regard your base and infamous mode of elec- 
tioneering, with the contempt it merits. 

Respectfully, 

J. BARBER." 

Leblond, now that Barber had completely com- 
mitted himself upon a prohibitory liquor law," was 
satisfied he had him in the net he had been spread- 
ing for him, and that all he had to do was to spring it 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 4? 

This lie determined to do with adroitness and dis- 
patch. He, accordingly, abandoned all idea of vis- 
iting the home of his early youth — entered vigor- 
ously into the campaign, upon the principle that 
" eternal vigilance is the price of" political success. 
His first move was to procure a copy of the Ga- 
zette, containing Barber's communication. This 
he carried with him, and invariably, but cautiously, 
felt about and sounded every man whom he met, 
and if he found him opposed to the Maine law he 
would carefully read to him that portion of the ar- 
ticle in which Barber expressed his desire to see 
the Maine law T in force in every State in the Union ; 
usually remarking, that it was a fearful invasion 
of our rights, and that if these fanatics were per- 
mitted, with their wild and extravagant opinions 
and notions, to govern us, our liberties would cease 
to be little else than an empty name — that " fanat- 
ics are governed rather by imagination than judg- 
ment." That if an individual saw proper to get 
drunk and continue in that condition until he chose 
to do differently, it was a matter that concerned 
and interested himself, and him only. Carefully 
evading an allusion to the mighty retinue of dis- 
ease, wretchedness, misery, woe, debauchery, pau- 
perism, crime and death that followed in the train 
of this unbridled liberty of getting drunk at pleas- 
ure. 

Leblond w r as amply skilled in the use of the 
weapons of that most detestable character — the 



48 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

demagogue ; and was in addition, a shrewd, saga- 
cious, and far-seeing politician. He was, literally, 
all things to all men. While he was carrying 
around his money and depositing it in the taverns 
and groceries, for the wicked and abominable pur- 
pose of treating his friends upon election day, and 
thereby indirectly, if not directly, buying votes, he 
was cautioning those with whom he left the money, 
to be exceedingly careful that the old deacons, and 
certain others whom he supposed would reprobate 
that practice, should know nothing about his lib- 
erality, lest they might use it against him in cer- 
tain quarters. 

When he came in contact with the sober, virtu- 
ous, and better portion of community, he professed 
to detest dissipation in all its various forms — said 
he would occasionally take a dram, but not often 
— was actually opposed to the practice of tippling 
— thought tippling begat drunkenness ; that drunk- 
enness ought to be, by law, severely punished as a 
crime. His close observation of men enabled him 
to determine with unerring certainty, whether he 
could talk temperance, or anti-temperance ; and 
always suited himself to the occasion. We find 
him making it convenient to be in the neighbor- 
hood of a temperance meeting where he had sent 
one of his sattellites, who called him as he was ri- 
ding by. Leblond stopped, tied his horse, and 
went into the crowd ; and after having been in- 
formed, by his friend who had invited him to stop, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 40 

that all were temperance men, and that he could 
with safety discour.se temperance sentiment, he 
went on to remark, that he had heard some men 
claim that it was an improper abridgement of our 
liberties to restrain us from immoderate drinking, 
but that was all consummate nonsense. The pub- 
lic had rights — society had interests that must not 
be overlooked. We had laws for the prevention 
of profanity and the violation of the Sabbath — Li- 
bel — a thousand and one other crimes and offen- 
ces, which the good of community required should 
be prohibited, and yet those laws were universally 
regarded as good and wholesome — as laws that 
tended to promote the best interests of the people ; 
and therefore, were not only tolerated, but deemed 
essential to the welfare of community. And added, 
if it could be shown that drunkenness was an of- 
fence against society, (and no sane man doubted 
it,) then it was not an invasion of our liberties to 
restrain intemperance. 

Leblond then went into a very learned discus- 
sion of the difference between natural liberty — that 
which man enjoyed before the organization of so- 
ciety — and civil liberty, which grew out of his re- 
lations to mankind. Admitted that a man had, in a 
state of nature, before society was formed, a right 
to do what he chose, or desired ; but when he enur- 
ed into the compact, he voluntarily gave up and sur- 
rendered that part of his natural liberty that con- 
flicted with the good of comunity, or the rights of oth- 



50 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

ers, as the initiation fee of becoming a member of 
society. And claimed, that if in no other point of 
view it could be regarded as an offence against 
society, it certainly was in this, that when a man 
became a member of community it had claims up- 
on him to the full extent of his intellectual and 
moral powers ; that a prostitution of those powers 
was a loss to the public, to say nothing of the de- 
moralizing effect of the example. 

While Leblond was traveling the district, suit- 
ing himself to every hue and complexion of char- 
acter with which he came in contact — now drink- 
ing — now abstaining — here lecturing on temper- 
ance (privately, of course,) there besotting himself; 
in one circle condemning, in most unmeasured 
terms, the man who would drink even moderately ; 
and in the next crowd, in just as unmeasured terms, 
censuring the illiberality of temperance advocates 
— using every means in his power, honorable and 
dishonorable, to effect his election, — Barber was 
also passing through the district with but one set 
of principles ; professing, at all times, to be noth- 
ing more or less than what he was ; and upon 
suitable occasions, avowing frankly his desire to 
see a prohibitory liquor law placed upon the stat- 
ute books of the State. He was also holding 
meetings, and in a fair, manly, but masterly man- 
ner" discussing the questions that separated them 
as the representatives of the two political parties 
of the day. Having become apprised of the course 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 5i 

pursued by Leblond, sought to call him out and ex- 
pose him, in the following note, which was pub- 
lished in the Gazette : 
14 L> Leblond, Esq : 

Sir: — You profess to belong to a political 
party, having principles which you claim to cher- 
ish. I belong to a different school. Now, will 
you meet me at our town hall, and discuss those 
principles? and from thence proceed through the 
district, and discuss them whenever and wherever 
we shall be able to get an audience ? It is said, 
by some, you are at every point of the compass on 
all the questions, political and moral, that divide 
us, and positively nowhere. 

Very Respectfully, 

J. BARBER." 
4* 



CHAPTER V. 



Accidents 

Sometimes combine to cast a shade of doubt 
Upon the innocent. Coleman. 

Lemuel Hamlin, the convict, was about the me- 
ridian of life, and had been, from early boyhood, 
remarkable for his habits of industry and sobriety. 
He had, at about the period of twelve years of age, 
become a church member, and for nearly thirty 
years lived strictly within the canons of the order 
and precepts cf the Bible; and had, therefore, in 
the community in which he lived, a character above 
reproach. The malevolent tongue of slander had 
never dared asperse his fair fame; and though in 
the midst of affluence and the various comforts 
and conveniences that await upon wealth, he made 
no display — no pomp, no flourish ; but was kind 
and amiable in his intercourse towards all with 
whom he came in contact in the various relations 
of life; and hence, even the shafts of envy failed 
to reach him. Having obtained considerable ce- 
lebrity and distinction at the bar, he was about 
permitting his name to be used as a candidate for 
the State Senate, at the time the suspicion of hav- 
ing murdered his brother began to attach to him. 



. THE UNJUST JUDGE. 53 

The father of Hamlin had died ten years pre- 
vious to the period of which we are now writing; 
and left, at his decease, a large estate to be divided 
equally between Lemuel and his younger brother, 
Joseph, whom, as we have seen, was poisoned. 

Lemuel married early, and though he possessed 
personal attractions of no ordinary character — su- 
perior talents, and no inconsiderable amount of 
wealth, (most of the latter, it is true, in the fu- 
ture,) yet with the position these advantages neces- 
sarily gave him, he selected his wife from the more 
obscure walks of life ; remarking to a friend, at the 
time, that more than nine-tenths of the town and 
city girls had their hearts entirely covered with sic- 
atrices by arrows shot from Cupid's quiver, long 
before they reached womanhood, that he there- 
fore preferred a virgin heart, that he might have 
domestic p^ace and comfort ; that many of them 
were rather quixotic, and would require more time 
and patience to tame, than he had either leisure 
or inclination to devote to that subject ; that it 
was easier to stimulate the intellect and develope 
it. than to give new directions to the moral facul- 
ties. 

The union of Lemuel Hamlin and his wife was 
one of affection. No sinister motive weighed on 
either side in determining in favor of this happy 
connection. It was formed with the single view 
of attaining domestic happiness ; that which Di\ 



54 THE UNJUST JfUf)GE. 

Paley tells us alone approximates perfect bliss on 
on earth. 

" Domestic happiness! thou only bliss 
Of Paradise, that has survived the fall!" 

No discordant sounds were heard around that 
hearth. All was peace, love, devotion, with all 
those ten thousand little kind acts and attentions 
which in their aggregate go very far in making up 
the sum total of domestic comfort. 

His two eldest children were 'girls — one seven- 
teen, the other fifteen ; both beautiful, sprightly, 
and intelligent ; and were, at the commencement 
of his trouble, finishing their education at a dis- 
tant school. His remaining three were boys, one 
thirteen and the other two younger. 

Conscious of his innocence, he did not inform 
his daughters of his perilous condition until after 
his trial was over. Though the circumstances con- 
ne.cted with the charge, were positively suspicious, 
he apprehended no danger of conviction, and 
hoped to be able, before the period assigned for 
the trial should arrive, to explain some of the 
more mysterious circumstances. Yet he knew not 
how, nor could he begin to divine how to account 
for the most extraordinary fact, of having about 
his person, a phial containing a small quantity cf 
deadly poison which, upon post mortem examina- 
tion, was discovered by medical skill to be identi- 
cally the same as that which was found in the 
stomach of young Hamlin. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 55 

Soon after his conviction he wrote to his absent 
children as follows : 

" My Dear Daughters : — 

A misfortune has befallen your father which 
entitles him to your sympathy and your consola- 
tion. May I hope you will make no unnecessary 
delay in coming to m} r relief? 

Your affectionate Father, 
L. HAMLIN." 

Upon the reception of the above intelligence 
their anxiety became insupportable, and moments 
seemed hours, and hours weeks, until they reached 
home, (which was only the day previous to that as- 
signed for the execution,) and received from their 
mother the cause of their speedy return, and the 
true situation of the father. Oh ! what a crushing 
blow was that ! Though their imaginations had 
been upon the rack, and every conceivable misfor- 
tune conjectured and magnified, and tortured into 
all kinds of fearful shapes and contortions ; yet 
how far short of the terrible reality ! It was sev- 
eral hours before they became sufficiently com- 
posed to visit the prison. Finally, suppressing all 
emotion, or as nearly so as the poignancy of their 
deep grief would admit — for they had wonderful 
control over their feelings when we consider their 
youth and the additional fact, that they had never 
been schooled in the furnace of affliction — in com- 
pany with their mother and their little brothers, 
proceeded to the jail. And here a scene occurred 



56 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

with which we would not pain our reader, but most 
gladly omit it, did not the faithfulness of our nar- 
rative imperiously demand the attempt to sketch 
this solemn meeting. 

When they entered his cell, though heavily mana- 
cled, he stood erect, and affectionately and tenderly 
received them in turn, — 

'•In all the silent manliness of gvief." 

He conversed coolly to his family, for some time ; 
but when he alluded to his demise on the follow- 
ing day, his daughters gave vent to a pent up ag- 
ony in tones — 

" So madly shrill, so piercing wftd," 
that the father, no longer able to control his infelt 
pangs, proposed invoking heavenly aid, — kneeled 
amid the clanking of his chains, with his family 
around him, in the deepest devotional feeling, 
prayed as follows : 

" Heavenly Father ; thou orderest all things 
well. Thy will, and not mine, be done. Thy ways 
are inscrutable and past finding out. Thou, who 
knowest all things, knowest that I am innocent of 
the blood of my brother; yet thou hast for some 
wise purpose, to finite eyes unseen, permitted this 
deep affliction — this terrible calamity — to come 
upon thy servant. Sustain and support him un- 
der the weight of this fearful infliction. Thou, in 
thy holy book, hast taught us that all things work 
together for the good of those who love and serve 
thee. Increase our faith, and enable us to rely 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 57 

with entire confidence upon thy sacred promises. 
Enable us to realize that this visitation is a blessing 
in disguise, and is meant to save. Sustain this af- 
flicted and distressed family, and forbid, Almighty 
and merciful Father, that at the great day of final 
retribution, one of this number shall be found want- 
ing in any of the virtues of thy saints. Be a hus- 
band to the widow, and a father to the fatherless. 
Save them from sin. Throw around them the 
broad aegis of thy saving grace, and enable them 
to feel the necessity of a continual application of 
the blood of a crucified and risen Redeemer. In 
the name of thy beloved Son, save them from the 
allurements of sin and follj r . With grace buoy 
them over this dispensation of thy Providence, the 
purpose of which we shall know and fully realize, 
when we meet around thy throne. Prepare thy 
servant, with true christian fortitude and resigna- 
tion, to meet his impending fate, and save us all 
through the merits of Christ. Amen." 

After the family arose, the youngest little boy, 
about six years old continued upon his knees, with 
his eyes closed and his little hands clasped, while 
the tears were trickling down his infantile face, he 
exclaimed, with great fervency : " Oh, Dod, ma 
says you opened a prison and let Peter go way. 
Open this big jail door, and let my poor pa go 
home ; do, Dod ; oh, do ! " 

This little incident produced a state of things 
that defies description ; and we shall not, therefore, 



58 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

attempt to delineate it, but leave our reader to 
draw upon his imagination for the occurrences of 
the next half hour. 

Some three hours before day the youngest daugh- 
ter and three little boys took an affectionate leave 
of their father and returned home. The mother 
and oldest daughter remained with him without 
eating or sleeping, until sometime the next day, 
and till the Sheriff appeared to dress him in the 
habiliments of the grave. 

As soon as the younger members of the family 
had left, he turned to his wife, and thus addressed 
her — 

'■ My dear ; our attachment has been long, deep, 
ardent, uninterrupted. It is now about to close 
forever. There are many things I would like to 
say, but the time allotted me is too short. It is 
said that— 

"Eiidure ; and —.lie/'' 

is all of life; but that is not correct. There are 
many things in life to make it desirable. I have 
strong desires to live — not that I am afraid to die. 
Death has no terrors that I cannot face with as 
much composure as I could contemplate a beauti- 
ful landscape. ' It is appointed to man once to 
die.' If he has 'fought a good fight,' it can mat- 
ter but little to him, when, or under what circum- 
stances, he is called to shake hands with time. 
The only thing that could induce one lingering re- 
gret, is our relations with others. My only desire 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 59 

to live at this time, is for the benefit of my fam- 
ily; and I sometimes fear that even that desire is a 
distrust in the goodness of God. But when I recur 
to those dear, dear little boys ; oh! how my heart 
bleeds ! They have been the joy and the pride cf 
my existence. I have watched their expanding in- 
tellects and their moral development with a solici- 
tude none have known ; and now, we separate for- 
ever ! This may be intended by a kind Providence 
to save. By the erring hand of indulgence I might 
have laid the foundation for their ultimate ruin, 
temporal and eternal. Exert all a mother's influ- 
ence over their tender, ductile minds. You may 
make them what you will. May God grant you 
may make them what you ought. Impart to them 
your own high and holy notions of virtue — of prin- 
ciple — of integrity. Teach them that to depart 
from these, is to be like 

" A boat at midnight, sent alone 
To drift upon a moonless sea." 

Put your trust in the widow's God. Let your con- 
fidence in His promises be implicit. Let not a 
doubt pervade your soul. Oh ! what would now 
be my insupportable condition but for the solaces 
of religion— for faith in Christ — 

"He taught us how to live; and (oh! too high 
The price of knowledge.) taught us how to die." 

I know you will take pleasure in not only follow- 
ing my example, but closely adhering to my ad- 
vice in all your business transactions. In your 



60 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

expenditures consult comfort and respectability, 
rather than show or display. Be just always. If 
you have, at any time, under any circumstances, 
procured even the value of one cent fraudulently. 
and without having rendered a fall and complete 
equivalent, restore it at the earliest possible mo- 
ment, according to scriptural measure. Deal kindly 
with the poor; give liberally, but with discrimina- 
tion. Property is without value to us, except so 
far as it contributes to our own comfort, and ena- 
bles us to relieve the wants and miseries of others. 
So many temptations cluster along the path of 
the man of wealth, that the virtuous and the good 
would scarcely desire to be in affluence. 

" I have made my will, and left you in the full 
possession of all my property, personal and real. 
It is yours to use and dispose of as you may see 
proper. And these dear children of ours are yours, 
and only yours. Educate them morally, phisically 
and intellectually. Let me urge you, as you value 
their undying souls, to spare no pains nor expense 
in fitting them for usefulness in life, and enjoy- 
ment after this brief existence shall have closed. 
One prop is now withdrawn from their support, 
but I am convinced your asiduity, your vigilance, 
your deep interest in their welfare, will supply its 
place. Why God has removed this stay, does 
not now appear. There is a Providence in it you 
will see when God, in the presence of assembled 
worlds, shall manifest my innocence. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 61 

" You are in affluence. Your income is abundant 
to sustain you, without exertion to increase it ; and 
amply sufficient to educate, thoroughly, the chil- 
dren. Devote your time to religious meditation, 
and to the moral and mental culture of these little 
ones ; and when we meet beyond the ravages of 
sin, may you have them with you, without the loss 
of one, is the dying wish of him who has loved 
you and them with the deepest devotion. Fare- 
well. 5 ' 

The Sheriffhad been standing at the door, an un- 
observed spectator, for nearly thirty minutes, un- 
willing to break in upon the solemnity of the sep- 
aration. When Hamlin discovered him at the 
door, he rose — embraced his wife, and then his 
daughter, with less emotion than could have been 
anticipated ; while they both swooned — fell to the 
floor — were picked up and conveyed home. 

On entering the room, the Sheriff took a seat 
and entered into a conversation, in which he as- 
sured Hamlin he had the liveliest sympathies of 
the entire community; that none supposed him 
guilty— that all had hoped that some development 
would have disclosed his innocence before the fa- 
tal time which had arrived. 

" That," replied Hamlin, " avails me but little 
at this trying hour. It is true, that it affords me 
much consolation, in my dying moments, to know 
and feel that [ have so lived as to deserve the con- 
fidence and receive the sympathy of those with 



62 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

whom I have always been associated ; yet they 
have failed to restore me to mj T rights, of remove 
the ignominy of the scaffold." 

"If Judge Jones had been sober," remarked the 
Sheriff, "you would not have been convicted." 

" If he had not charged the Jury at all," contin- 
ued Hamlin, "they could not have hesitated a mo- 
ment as to my innocence ; but if he had charged 
the law as it is laid down in the books, they would 
have returned a verdict of not guilty without leav- 
ing their box. But I was astonished that twelve 
as good men as composed that jury, did not utterly 
disregard his ruling, notwithstanding he told them 
that their oaths and affirmations bound them to 
take the law to be what the Court ruled, which was 
as false as the rest of the charge. The law makes 
the jury the judges of the law as well as the facts, 
and had Jones become sober before the court ad- 
journed, and made acquainted with the character 
of his charge, I have no doubt he would have 
granted a new trial, without argument. My fate 
and his conduct upon that investigation, will annoy 
him till the latest period of his earthly existence, if 
not infinitely beyond it." 

" Yes, yes ;" said the Sheriff, " you have fallen 
a victim to the vice of tippling." 

He was now dressed in his grave clothes and 
taken to the scaffold, through the living mass* of 
human beings, who had congregated from every 
direction, to witness the execution. He walked up 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. (jS 

the steps leading to the platform, with a firm, elas- 
tic tread, and when he gained the top, the rope was 
adjusted around his neck, after which he was told 
he had thirty minutes in which to make any re- 
marks he might wish. 

He now turned to the crowd, though his hands 
were closely pinioned, yet in a very animated, as 
well as dignified manner, spoke in a clear, audible 
voice, as follows : 

Ci 3Iy Dear Friends and Neighbors: I am now on 
the confines of two worlds — in a few moments to 
quit the one, and enter upon the untried realities 
of the other. I now say, in the presence of this 
vast assembly, and the Searcher of all hearts, 
whom I expect soon to meet in judgment, I am 
entirely innocent of the murder of my brother. 
Left to my care at a tender age, I watched over 
him and his interests with more than a parent's 
solicitude. I loved him with more than a brother's 
affection. But for the dear children God had en- 
trusted to my responsibility, I would at any time 
within the last ten years, most willingly have laid 
down my own life to have saved his ; and now I 
stand here on the scaffold, about to yield up mine, 
on a charge of having deprived him of his." As 
he raised his eyes, he exclaimed : u Oh, dearest 
brother, could you speak from the battlements of 
heaven, how soon would your kind voice relieve 
me from this perilous, this fearful condition; from 
this foul aspersion of my name. But how myste- 



64 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

rious are the ways of Heaven ! Why, God, 
hast thou permitted this terrible calamity to befall 
me ? Thou knowest I am innocent, entirely in- 
nocent, of the charge of my brother's blood. But 
I am complaining of the decrees of heaven. Thy 
will, and not mine, be done." 

Turning again to the multitude, he continued : 
" I declare before God, I am wholly ignorant of the 
manner in which the phial containing prussic acid, 
came into my possession. Some wicked person 
present at the bar-supper, must have placed it in 
my pocket, while he contemplated precisely the state 
of things which have resulted. The guilty has 
gone unwhipt of justice ; while I, quite as inno- 
cent as the victim of the diabolical deed, who now 
sleeps his last sleep, am about to die for the crime. 
I have a distinct impression as to who is the guilty 
wretch, but I might do him injustice ; and shall, 
therefore, decline to give that impression to the 
w r orld. I would not at this moment exchange sit- 
uations with him. And let me now assure him, 
that before many weeks shall have passed, God 
will avenge this base wrong — vindicate my char- 
acter and save my family from the foul imputa- 
tion." 

At this moment, Jerome Jenkins, who for many 
years, had been the competitor of Lemuel Ham 
lin at the bar, gave a piercing scream, that attrac- 
ted the attention of all present — fell to the 
ground near the foot of the structure upon w r hich 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 65 

Hamlin stood, and was carried by his friends to his 
lodgings. 

For the first time since Hamlin left the prison, 
he now became pale, and exhibited deep emotion. 
He had witnessed the fall of Jenkins, and had 
seen him borne from the ground. He, however, 
soon rallied, and remarked, that intemperance had 
brought this work of destruction upon him, though 
he had not tasted liquor for very many years. He 
hoped that all who heard him would profit by his 
misfortune, and wage a war of extermination 
against tippling and intemperance. 

The crowd had now become impetuous, and 
made a rush to the stand, with a view of releasing 
Hamlin, but were repelled by a strong military 
guard, at the point of the bayonet. 

The Sheriff here communicated to him that he 
had but five minutes to live, took leave of him, and 
was about drawing the cap over the eyes of Ham- 
lin, when a man was seen in the distance, coming 
in the direction of the place of execution, as swiftly 
as his exhausted steed could bear him forward, 
crying, as he came, — " hold ! hold ! ! hold ! ! ! " The 
messenger, as he ran his foaming animal into the 
midst of the dense mass of people, threw himself 
from its back, and was immediately upon the scaf- 
fold in conversation with the Sheriff. 
5 



CHAPTER VI, 

Pangs more corrosive and severe, 

More fierce more poignant and intense 

Than ever hostile sword or spear 
Wak'd in the breast of innocence. 

Mrs. Ealford. 

Jerome Jenkins had been carried home, where 
he remained delirious for several days, with an 
occasional lucid interval. During his lucid mo- 
ments, he wouhl constantly talk of the cruel fate 
of the Hamlins, but when in delirium he would in- 
sist that he, with his own hand, had murdered them; 
and in the most wild and incoherent manner talk 
about his struggles at the bar with Lemuel, and 
the bright and glorious future that awaited Joseph, 
had he lived. And then, at the top of his deep, 
sonorious voice, that carried dismay to every heart, 
exclaim, " Pluto, I see you ! Why don't you take 
the devil out of my room ? He is after me. Help ! 
help ! ! help ! ! !" AYhile it would require three or 
four athletic men to keep him in bed. 

Jenkins and Hamlin practiced in their profession 
at the same bar, for some twenty years. They 
started in the profession about the same period, 
and at the time of commencing, both were in indi- 



The unjust judge. 67 

gent circumstances. Hamlin's father, soon after 
his admission to the bar, put him into the posses- 
sion of a handsome property, to which by industry, 
economy, and careful management, he had made 
large accessions. 

Jenkins, stimulated by the thought of Hamlin's 
becoming rich, embarked in a hazardous enter- 
prize ; and he, too, after a few years, and a fortui- 
tous turn or two of the wheel of fortune, became 
wealthy. So that at the death of Joseph Hamlin, 
they were each in affluence, and were beginning 
to entertain political aspirations, and both accord- 
ingly, had their names announced as candidates 
for the State Senate. 

When admitted to the bar, Jenkins and Hamlin 
were members of a temperance organization, and 
with the strictest fidelity each kept his pledge until 
Jenkins began to feel an inclination to* court public 
favor with reference to political promotion, when he 
violated his pledge, and was finally cut loose from 
the society of which he was a member, by the 
unanimous vote of the association, as unworthy of 
their confidence. 

Feeling now, no restraint, and mingling freely, 
and indeed, almost constantly, among the sove- 
reign people, of all classes and conditions, (for he 
was resolved to win,) he was incessantly exposed 
to the danger of treating and being treated ; 
and whenever exposed, invariably yielded to the 
temptation, until among the more sober and tem- 
5* 



68 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

perate portion of the community, he was regarded 
as an inebriate — gone beyond the hope of redemp- 
tion ; while his drunken associates only consid- 
ered him a clever-souled fellow, who could drink 
or let it alone, at his pleasure. But he found it 
much easier to drink than to let it alone. Yet he, as 
is universally the case, had not even begun to sus- 
pect that he was sliding notwithstanding he was 
very near the base of the declivity. 

Some of his friends, (and he had many among 
the best men of the country,) would occasionally 
modestly intimate to him that he was in danger, 
but Jenkins would seem not to understand the al- 
lusion until it was made too palpable, and then 
would repel the idea of his becoming intemperate 
as utterly impossible and not to be contemplated 
for a moment. The recklessness of such men, who 
can doubt, had much to do in originating the say- 
ing among the ancients, that " whom the gods 
wish to destroy they first make mad ?" 

On the evening of the death of Joseph Hamlin, 
the bar had met at one of the Hotels of the village, 
for the purpose of knocking off, or rather washing 
off, the sharp points created during a recent term 
of their Court; and Joseph Hamlin being a law 
student, and quite a favorite, had an invitation to 
be present, and met with them. 

This young man had just gained his majority, 
and was about to be admitted as a member of the 
legal fraternity. In personal appearanceJoseph 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 69 

Hamlin was majestic, and in intellect was Vastly 
above mediocrity; and had the refining and polish- 
ing touches of a finished education. His brother 
had bestowed much attention upon his moral and 
mental training, and until within the last twelve 
months previous to this evening, he had been con- 
sidered a paragon of excellence and moral worth. 
During his collegiate course he had stood at the 
head of his class, and graduated with the highest 
honors the institution could confer upon him. He 
returned home, and with an intermission of but a 
few days, entered upon the study of the law with 
his brother. He had fixed his standard high. Had 
taken one or two of the first lawyers of the Re- 
public as his model, with a firm resolution to attain 
to their excellence. During the first twelve months 
of his studies, Coke, Plowden and Blackstone, were 
his constant and only companions, but about the 
close of that period, some of his duties as Clerk in 
his brother's office, brought him frequently, for 
some time, in contact with Jenkins, for whom he 
formed a warm attachment, and at the same time 
some fondness for the "flowing bowk" His brother, 
who regarded moral character as paramount, and 
of the utmost importance to a young man about 
to enter upon the legal profession, had been notic- 
ing, with the deepest anxiety, his declension, and 
had embraced every opportunity of impressing 
upon his mind the necessity of the strictest tem- 
perance, or an abandonment of the profession 



70 THE UXJL'ST JUDGE* 

he had chosen as the theatre of his future hopes ) 
now and then directing his attention to distin- 
guished members of the bar whose sun had set be- 
hind a cloud because of this vice. Lemuel Ham- 
lin's anxiety had become chronic, and he resolved 
to terminate it by breaking up the intimacy that 
existed between Joseph and Jenkins. He there- 
fore sought his brother's society, and on what he 
regarded as a suitable occasion, insisted upon his 
quitting the company of Jenkins, and urged as a 
reason, that he was immoral, reckless, and unprin- 
cipled, and was fast verging to the drunkard's fate, 
and that his association was having a demoralizing 
effect upon him. But Joseph, unwilling to believe he 
stood in need of such admonitions, very readily at- 
tributed his brother's views of Jenkin's character 
to the acrimonious feeling provoked by conflicts at 
the bar, and the political campaign just opening, 
in which they were competitors, and both more or 
less jealous of each other's power with the people. 

It was for the purpose of throwing a restraint 
around Joseph, that Lemuel was induced to attend 
the fatal bar supper. 

Jenkins had been sick for about two weeks, and 
for the most part of that time his case was con- 
sidered, by his medical advisers, as desperate. His 
fever having now, to some extent, abated, he was 
again rational. After enjoying, for some eighteen 
hours, an unclouded intellect, " a sound and dis- 
posing mind and memory," and supposing himself 



THE UxXJUST JUDGE. 71 

in extremis, began seriously to think of the " leap 
in the dark ;" " duly made and executed" his will. 
By this will he disinherited each of his four sons, 
if after they should respectively arrive at the age 
of twelve, they should " be known to drink alcholio 
liquors." And then added this singular clause : 
" not that a very few drams would be a great det- 
riment to my children, but drunkenness is nearly 
certain to ensue ; then follows idleness, profanity, 
and kindrid vices in the train, and hence thi^ 
clause." 

After completing his will and disposing of all 
his mundane possessions, he sent for a clergyman, 
who soon arrived, and was seated by his bed-side. 
A few moments having in silence elapsed, Jenkins 
remarked to the man of God, " You perceive, my 
dear sir,.that my sands are nearly run out. I have 
now to finish in a few brief hours, a work, for the 
completion of which a whole lifetime is too short. 
But before I proceed any further, I wish you to pro- 
cure a pen, ink, and paper, as I desire to leave a 
record, over my own sign manual, that will do am- 
ple justice to the living as well as the dead. You 
will be exceedingly careful to take down every 
word as I utter it." 

" During the past two years I have permitted 
myself to fall into that most destructive of all vices 
— intoxication. I slid into it gradually. The first 
drinking I did dates from the incipient stages of 
my political aspirations. I drank, not because I 



72 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

was fond of either the taste or effect of liquor, but 
in mixing with the people I was frequently invited 
to drink, and drank for no other reason than that I 
lacked courage to say no, and then in turn, treated 
and of course drank; and thus in a few months, if 
I did not acquire a fondness for both the taste and 
effect, I acquired the habit of drinking frequently, 
and was ruined before I was aware of the ground 
I occupied. If I possessed the ability to reform? 
which was doubtful, when a candidate for an im- 
portant office in a drinking community, all wall ad- 
mit, it was not the time to attempt a reformation. 
I drank, and continued to drink, excessively* But 
I attended that bar-supper, with a heart as free 
from guilt as it had ever been since my earliest 
recollection. After having been there for some 
time, drinking freely, I conceived the fiendish idea 
of attempting to strike down the character and 
moral standing of Lemuel Hamlin. I observed he 
drank no liquor, and as I drank immoderately, it 
occurred to me he would be likely to use my in- 
temperate habits against me in the coming cam- 
paign ; and I, therefore, went to the work of man- 
ufacturing an offset against his charge, and while 
revolving the matter in my mind, it struck me with 
irresistible force that if I could administer to Jo- 
seph Hamlin a very minute portion of poison — suf- 
ficient to produce nausia, and make it a marked 
effort at poisoning, and then fix the suspicion on 
Lemuel Hamlin, I could prostrate him and defeat 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. ^3 

his election. When I first conceived the idea it 
was with much difficulty that I could get my own 
consent, but after drinking often and freely of the 
accursed liquor that filled the board, I quietly pas- 
sed out of the hall, unobserved — returned to my 
house, procured a small phial containing prussic 
acid, I had obtained several months previously, 
for pharmaceutical purposes — returned to the room 
of conviviality and dissipation, and seated myself 
between Lemuel and Joseph ; and while Lemuel 
was engaged in conversation with a gentleman 
on his left, I poured the contents of the phial into 
Joseph's glass, he being by this time so much intox- 
icated that he was scarcely conscious of any thing 
that was transpiring about him, and immediately 
put my hand around behind Lemuel and placed 
the phial, withoutbeing noticed, into his coat pock- 
et. Joseph took up his glass and commenced 
drinking, but I had poured more of the fatal drug 
into the glass than I had intended ; I attempted by 
an apparent accidental jostle, to knock the glass 
from his hand; but being quite as much under the 
influence of liquor as he was, I, consequently, 
missed my aim — he drank it to the bottom. Soon, 
a deathly sickness seized him, and he fell to the 
floor. 

" Lemuel became very much excited, though a 
legitimate feeling, for the w r elfare of his brother, 
then in most imminent danger of speedy dissolu- 
tion. I knavishly, with knowing looks and ges- 



tl THE UNJUST JUDGE. 



tures, subsequently alluded to this agitation to his 
great disadvantage. 

" Before carrying Joseph to bed, Lemuel drew 
off his coat and threw it upon a chair, and at this 
moment the phial fell from his pocket, which was 
unobserved except by myself. I immediately called 
the attention of the Sheriff to the circumstance, 
whispering in his ear, " it had better be carefully 
preserved, as Joseph had to me the appearance of 
having been poisoned. The matter might be judi- 
cially investigated, in which event the presence of 
the phial would be of the utmost importance, and 
that the only motive that could have induced Lem- 
uel to commit the horrid deed was Joseph's prop- 
erty, which he must necessarily inherit at Joseph's 
death. 

" The unfortunate sequel is before the public. I 
never intended serious injury to the young man. 
May God pardon me for allowing myself to become 
intoxicated, for in that consisted the whole crime. 

JEROME JENKINS." 

"Now," continued Jenkins, "have this immediate- 
ly placed upon the records of the county, for the vin- 
dication of the fair fame of my honest and honorable, 
but unfortunate friend and competitor. It fixes upon 
nry own character, and the character of my family, 
an indelible stain ; but justice requires I should 
remove the foul blot from the innocent, who have 
already too severely suffered, and place it where 
it properly belongs. If I could call the entire uni- 






The unjust judge. 75 

verse my own, I would willingly relinquish my title 
to the whole of it, if thereby I could recall the last 
two years of my life, and give that period to tem- 
perance and virtue, and restore Joseph Hamlin to 
health and vigor. But, alas ! alas ! how vain are 
empty regrets ! " 

He wrung his hands and wept with the wildest 
emotion. 

1 No ear can hear, no tongue can tell, 
The tortures of that inward hell." 

His family becoming alarmed, his physician was 
brought and an opiate administered ; but without 
the slightest effect. He soon relapsed into raving 
delirium, and remained in that condition for seve- 
ral days. By superior medical attention and care- 
ful nursing, the excitement gradually wore off, and 
reason again resumed her throne, and with it, 
strength steadily but slowly returned. 

He conversed often, and freely, about the hard 
fate, as he frequently called it, of the Hamlms, 
which had now found its way, with all the attend- 
ing circumstances, into the newspaper publications 
of the day. About this period, three or four of his 
dram-drinking friends called in to condole with him, 
in his truly unhappy situation. As soon as they 
were seated, he commenced by saying, "Gentle- 
men, you see me a wreck ; physically, mentally, 
and morally. A wreck in character — in every- 
thing that makes life desirable. I would deserve, 
and doubt not have, the sympathies of the virtu- 



76 The unjust judg£. 

ous and good of all classes of society, had not my 
own folly and perverseness brought it upon my 
head ! Oh ! how soon are the rounds of folly run ! 
A few hours are often only necessary to sacrifice 
a character and a reputation, which it has required 
years of toil and assiduous labor to build up, and 
when lost can never be regained. The course I 
entered upon, two years since, I am now satisfied, 
sooner or later, ends in ruin. I have discovered 
it, alas ! too late to correct it. My example may 
not, I fervently hope will not, be lost upon others. 
And here you will allow me in all kindness to say, 
that unless you stop tippling, utter ruin will — must 
be your fate. It may not — and I pray God it may 
not — come in the fearful form in which it has visited 
your companion in vice ; but that it will come in 
some unwelcome shape, is as certain as you persist 
in it." 

The Doctor here entered his room, and his old 
associates left. His symptoms indicated the use 
of the lancet, and after extracting as much blood 
as was thought necessary, the instrument was care- 
lessly left upon the stand at the head of his bed, 
which he seized, a moment after the physician dis- 
appeared, and inserted it into his arm, while he 
tore off the bandage that had been placed on the 
other, and in a few minutes his guilty soul was 
before the bar of Omnipotence, 



CHAPTER VII. 



■ He hears 



On all sides, from innumerable tongues, 

A dismal, universal hiss, the sound 

Of public scorn, Milton. 

Judge Jones had been attacked, in different parts 
of the State, with a virulence unknown to political 
warfare, and it had become now evident that a 
powerful effort must be made to save his election. 

Soon after the trial and conviction of Hamlin, 
the following appeared in the Jeffersonian, a news- 
paper published in the village where the occurrence 
took place : 

" A foul murder of the most aggravated charac- 
ter is about to be committed in our midst, under a 
pretended sentence of law. Should a midnight as- 
sassin enter Hamlin's lone cell and bury his dag- 
ger in his bosom, his death would not be more un- 
just, nor a more flagrant violation of the law than 
to execute him in obedience to the late sentence 
of the court. From the inception to the close of 
this most exciting tragedy, rum has been the chief 
actor. It began in a drunken melee — the trial 
was a drunken farce, and we suppose there will be 
thousands of drunken men witness its termination. 



78 THE UNJUST JUDGE- 

We should not be astonished if the people would 
soon cease to have any more respect for, or confi- 
dence in, our courts of justice, than they have for 
those of Judge Lynch. 

u It has ever been the aim of distinguished and 
virtuous Judges to secure public confidence; nor is 
it difficult; common prudence accomplishes it. 
Without it law is brought into disrepute, and even 
disregarded. 

" The Judiciary of our State has been disgraced, 
and it will require a long time before it will recover 
from the shock. Lemuel Hamlin is, and ever has 
been, a man of high-toned morals — possesses a 
finely cultivated intellect, and has deservedly long 
occupied a high and commanding position in the 
esteem and affections of all who have known him. 
His death will create a vacuum in our society that 
cannot soon be filled. How Judge Jones is to an- 
swer at the bar of public opinion, or even at the 
bar of his own conscience, is more than we are 
able to divine. A just censure, and damning infa- 
my, is fast settling down upon him, if we have not 
grossly misinterpreted the signs of the times, from 
which he will find it difficult to extricate himself. 

" Judge Jones is a man of the very finest order of 
talents, superior acquirements, and capable of 
making himself a first class Judge; yet with the tal- 
ents of an angel a man may be a fool. He has 
been gradually contracting the habit of tippling, 
until he may now be regarded as lost to himself. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE, 79 

his friends and society. All the noble impulses and 
generous sentiments of his manly nature have 
been quenched in the fames of alcohol. The man 
who can so far lose sight of duty ; his obligations 
to society, and self-respect, as to become intoxi- 
cated upon the Bench while adjudicating a case 
involving the life or death of. an eminent fellow- 
citizen ; or, indeed, of any man ; deserves the deep 
and damning execrations of all honorable men — 
'deserves to be just what he is covered all over with 
the foulest infamy. 

"While contemplating this judicial murder, we 
sicken over the dark picture presented by poor, 
fallen, depraved human nature. For, if we see 
such departures from right, from duty, from princi- 
ple, in men of position ; in men cf intellectual su- 
periority.; in. men holding offices of great respon- 
sibility in the affairs of State ; in men chosen be- 
cause of their supposed fitness for the station, then 
what are we to expect in the private walks of life 
where there is no responsibility except such as at- 
taches to persons as members of society ? What 
are we to look for where ignorance abounds, where 
neither head nor heart has been cultivated ? " If 
it burns in the green, what will it do in the dry ? " 
" In view of all the circumstances connected 
with this most unfortunate and melancholy affair, 
will Judge Jones suffer his name to continue before 
the public, in connection with the judgeship?" is a 
question frequently propounded to us within the 



80 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

last few days, to which we have invariably respon- 
ded, most certainly not, unless he has infinitely less 
confidence in the virtue and intelligence of the 
people than we supposed. It cannot be that a man 
steeped to the chin in infamy, and bedaubed with 
the slime of drunkenness and debauchery, will ask 
a virtuous and intelligent community to endorse 
his judicial course, and by their suffrage retain 
him in the high and responsible position he has so 
thoroughly disgraced. 

" An ordinary case of murder is mitigated homi- 
cide, when compared with this judicial murder of 
Hamlin. The pinching want of a destitute family 
may occasionally be plead in extenuation of the 
crime of the misguided w r retch w T ho kills for gain. 
Avarice, revenge, and the various motives which 
prompt the murderous act, may, and frequently 
have, mitigating circumstances ; but w r hat imagi- 
nation so fertile as to conceive of an apology for 
this murder by Judge Jones ? " 

The above publication had escaped the obser- 
vation of Judge Jones, until it was sent him by 
some friend, some weeks after the issue of the pa- 
per containing it. He had seen numerous attacks 
upon him, but none that roused him like this. He 
read it over attentively several times. His first 
impulse was, to meet the editor and chastise him 
personally, but a few moment's reflection enabled 
him to determine that a personal rencountre with 
the editor w T ould make a bad matter worse. While 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 81 

attack upon those who were traducing him would 
appease his wrath and vindicate his wounded pride, 
it might add to the dangers already clustering 
about his political hopes. His next thought w T as 
to institute his action for libel, and make him re- 
spond in damages; but again it occurred that the 
editor was wholly irresponsible. When he finally 
determined to defer the matter until he had an op- 
portunity of consulting with his friend Jewett, to 
whom he wrote the following letter; 

€i My Dear Jewett : 

" You will please find, enclosed, a slanderous 
attack upon me, which I have clipped from a num- 
ber of the Jeffersonian, published a few weeks since, 
concerning the Hamlin trial, which you have doubt- 
less seen. For baseness and malignant feeling it 
surpasses any of the Junius letters. It annoys me 
no little, and I am wholly unable to determine what 
disposition to make of it. Is it the production of 
the editor, or some other political scullion, who 
has more responsibility and probably more charac- 
ter than the editor, and who thus expects to attack 
me with impunity, by skulking behind the misera- 
ble putrescence that presides over the columns of 
that contemptible sheet ? 

" Your long experience at the bar, and your suc- 
cess in political life, as well as the deep interest 
you have taken in my welfare, induce me to place 
a high estimate upon your counsel and advice, in 



82 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

this crisis of my political career. My defeat, at 
this time, would be the death-knell to my hopes ; 
and with the prostration of my political hopes, my 
happiness, also, for I have no taste for the tame 
pursuits of professional life. I had in my mind's- 
eye the position I now occupy, when I first entered 
upon a legal course of study. It w r as the dream 
of my youth — the aspiration of maturer years, and 
the culminating point of my ambition. 

" I use freedom in writing to you, for ' talking to 
a friend,' we are told, 'is only thinking aloud.' 

"I have flattered myself I could become useful, 
if not distinguished, upon the Bench. And now, 
to have my fondest aspirations thus nipped in the 
bud — to be thus sent back to the private walks of 
life, degraded and forever disgraced, with a great 
gulf carved out — beyond which I cannot pass — be- 
tween me and the object for which I have lived, 
and upon which I have set my heart, is absolutely 
insupportable. The bare thought wrings anguish 
from my soul. The dereliction of duty, if I have 
been guilty of any, will not, in fact, be increased 
by my defeat ; nor will my election actually 
lessen it, yet success covers a multitude of sins, 
w T hile failure augments them. Thompson, though 
not a politician, understood this subject when he 
wrote — 

"It is success that colors all in life ; 

Success makes fools admired, makes villains honest." 

What shall I do ? Meet him and compel a retrac- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 83 

tion, or punish him on the spot ? Or, shall I reply 
through the press ? This might be objectionable, 
as it would elicit, through the public prints, a full 
discussion of the entire circumstances connected 
with the Hamlin affair, which would be unpleasant, 
not to say dangerous, at this time. Perhaps I had 
better bring an action against the rascal, even if it 
should be thought advisable to discontinue it after 
the election, as that w T ould probably put a quietus 
upon him for the present. Let me hear from you 
by return mail. I am, my dear Sir, 

Your ob't. serv't, 

J. L. JONES." 

A. P. Jewett was, at this period, a zealous and 
eloquent advocate of the Maine Law, but had 
formed a strong -attachment for Jones, personally, 
and entertained a high opinion of his legal ability 
and judicial talents, and had, therefore, determined 
to give him his most cordial and energetic support. 

At the earliest possible moment after the recep- 
tion of the above note from the Judge, he replied 
as follows : 

"My Dear Jones: 

" The subject in your communication, had 
cost me much thought and reflection, for sometime 
previous to receiving your favor, and it has not 
been without difficulty that I have been able to de- 
termine as to your better course in relation to the 

attack upon you, in the JefTersonian ; but have 
6* 



$4 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

finally concluded your better policy will be to treat 
it, for the present, at least, with silent contempt ; 
and w T hen an allusion is made to this and similar 
charges, your friends must insist that it is the want 
of responsibility in the editor of the JefTersonian 
that saved him from condign punishment, 

w And a very short time hence, the ground must 
be assumed in different parts of the State, simul- 
taneously, that you are cruelly persecuted — that 
a strong disposition prevails in certain quarters, to 
victimize you — that the charge is without founda- 
tion — is intended to strike you down, for the simple 
reason that you are not a fanatic — will not advo- 
cate a prohibitory law, but w T ill occasionally indulge 
in a glass of brandy. If this course is prudently 
adopted, and the matter carefully managed, it can 
be made to recoil with powerful force ; and if so, 
your election, by a large and very decided majority, 
is rendered certain. 

'" You are well aware of my position upon the 
temperance question. I am in favor of prohibition ; 
yet, so anxious am I for your success, I would make 
any reasonable sacrifice to accomplish it. In the 
course of some four or five days, 1 will make a tour 
through the State and moderate our temperance 
friends, as much as in my power, and occasionally 
furnish the opposers of the Maine Law with a few 
items that may benefit you essentially. 

Very truly yours, 

A. P.JEWETT." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 85 

A few days previous to the election, in pursuance 
of Jewett's plan for operation, articles appeared 
through the State, in all the different papers friendly 
to Jones, charging that a most unholy persecution 
had been waged by the Maine Law advocates 
against Judge Jones ; the object of which was to 
rouse the liquor influence, nor is it necessary to 
add that it worked like a charm. 

As our narrative would be incomplete without 
a specimen of the political writers of those times, 
we will copy, entire, an article which appeared in 
the Herald, a paper published in the Eastern part 
of the State : 

" Since the dawn of political warfare, no man 
has ever been required to pass through the fiery 
ordeal that has fallen to the lot of Judge Jones. 
We have always been in favor of fair, open, manly 
political struggles for principle ; and will add, we 
care not how warmly such contests are conducted. 
We have ever believed that political parties neces- 
sarily grew out of human nature in organized so- 
ciety ; that the existence of party is as unavoidable 
as necessary; hence we never expect to see party 
annihilated, neither in Republican, nor any other 
form of government, in the old or new world ; nor 
do we think it desirable, if it were possible. 

" We ask, what would be the condition of our 
country if party did not exist? What would be- 
come of government? What would become of 
the country and the interests of the people, but for 



86 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

the lynx-eyed political editors and partizans ? It 
is absolutely necessary, then, for the purity of the 
government, that there should be some person or 
persons sufficiently interested to watch every move 
of the governmental officials, and to discuss the 
propriety of every movement; ferret out their 
frauds and expose their laches — their want of saga- 
city and foresight. But for this watching — this fer- 
reting-out — this investigation — governments, of 
whatever character or complexion they may be, 
would soon fester, gangreen, and fall to pieces 
from their own inherent corruption, or become a 
most insupportable burden, rather than a blessing 
to the people. But, again, who is to sustain po- 
litical editors and political partizans, but political 
parties ? " The laborer is worthy of his hire," is a 
truism if stripped of its divinity, and that hire must 
come from partiz an zeal or not at all. And hence 
we argue the necessity, as well as the wisdom, of 
party. 

" For the above reasons, with numerous others 
we might offer, we expect ever to be a warm and 
decided politician ; ever willing to stand firm and 
immovable for the interest and measures of our 
party; believing, as we do, that the interest and 
welfare of our country are involved in the interest 
and welfare of the party of which we have been 
a zealous member from our youth up. But we 
can never be tempted to assail private character, 
for the purpose of carrying a political measure, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 87 

however important it may be ; and we certainly 
could not be induced to do it for the baser purpose 
of striking down a political enemy. 

" How different the course pursued by the perse- 
cutors of our worthy and distinguished friend, 
Judge Jones ? His private character has been sifted 
and held up to the public gaze, distorted and black- 
ened so as not to be recognized by his friends ex- 
cept as a most ridiculous caricature. Even the 
sanctity of the domestic hearth has been invaded 
by these worse than hyenas, who are yelping upon 
his track ! And for no other reason than that he 
will not give in his adhesion to a prohibitory liquor 
law, and shout, frantic with fanaticism, to the ut- 
most capacity of his lungs, Maine Law! Which 
we think, with due deference, ought to be dubbed 
the Maine folly. Such conduct is infamous beyond 
the power of language to characterize, and can 
have no other effect than to rouse the liberal of all 
parties, in support of the Judge. And we shall 
be most egregiously disappointed if the moderate 
and liberal of all parties do not rally around the 
standard of Judge Jones, to such an extent as to 
carry dismay into the ranks of these fanatics. 

" Who does not know that the best men among 
us are in the habit, now and then, of drinking a 
glass of liquor whenever they need it? And who 
does not know that it has neither injured them 
physically nor intellectually, nor has it incapaci- 
tated them for business," 



88 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

We have ever been opposed to dissipation in all 
its varied forms, and particularly, drunkenness. 
We despise it ! We detest — we abhor — we loath 
it ! ! We would turn in utter disgust from the mis- 
erable drunkard, with a feeling compounded of 
pity and shame for his wickedness and degrada- 
tion. But to charge Judge Jones with being a 
drunkard is the impersonation of audacity. The 
man who is base enough to manufacture and make 
such a charge against the Judge, is lost to shame, 
and deserves to have "infamous" branded upon 
every inch of his surface. No man is freer from 
the charge of drunkenness than Jones, and we 
hope our friends will look closely to this matter, 
lest he be literally lied out of the office he has 
filled with so much credit to himself and advantage 
to the public. 

" We have the honor of a personal acquaintance 
with Judge Jones, and regard him as the best man 
upon our ticket > and feel bound to contribute our 
utmost effort to promote his election, because of 
his qualifications and peculiar fitness for the posi- 
tion. And even if he lacked some of the essential 
qualifications for the bench, still we should support 
him, and support him with all the energy we are 
capable of putting forth, for the reason that great 
injustice has been done to the Judge. We ape so 
constituted that when we see a man outraged, and 
the flood-gates of billingsgate let loose upon him, 
our sympathies are enlisted and our combatativ^ 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. . 89 

ness aroused, and would be more inclined to over- 
look imperfections. We have frequently met him 
in the social circle, and around the festive board ; 
and while w r e have never seen him drunk, we have 
never seen him refuse to take a glass when re- 
quested by a friend. He is endeared to his friends 
by every social tie. He is none of your narrow- 
contracted, pinched-up, sanctimonious, long-faced, 
little seven-by-nine down-eastern puritans, but lib- 
eral to a fault, and generous beyond his means ; 
always manly, always candid and frank ; no con- 
cealments to make, but always appears to be what 
he is. Again we would say to our friends, come 
to the rescue, and stamp the defamers of the Judge 
with falsehood." 

To the above article, a reply appeared in the 
next issue of the Journal, a paper printed in the 
same town, which, for the purpose of giving both 
sides a hearing, we will copy : 

" The Herald, of last week, is out in an article 
of some length and considerable acrimony, in sup- 
port of Judge Jones, 

" Our neighbor of the Herald's first effort is, to 
create the impression that Jones is being most 
fiercely persecuted. We have but little doubt that 
the facts, recently made public, in connection with 
the trial of Hamlin, are anything but agreeable to 
Judge Jones and his friends. 

* f No rogue e'er felt the halter draw. 
With good opinion of the law," 



90 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

It would be quite as sensible for the criminal to 
charge the court, that was meeting out to him the 
reward of his infamy and his crime, with persecu- 
tion ; though we confess it would be less politic. 

" Judge Jones is either guilty or innocent of the 
charge of sacrificing Hamlin. If innocent, then 
he has a remedy in our courts of justice, which 
will make him abundantly whole, and forever si- 
lence his traducers. Why has he not already re- 
sorted to this means of redress, instead of allow r - 
ing his friends to raise the doleful howl of perse- 
cution ? The answer to this inquiry is easily anti- 
cipated. Jones could not enter court with "clean 
hands j" and, consequently, would come out with 
a worse character than when he went in. He is 
too familiar with courts of Justice to ask any in- 
vestigation of the grave charges that are now be- 
ing made against him in every portion of the 
State. Had there been no foundation for these 
attacks upon his character, they were grossly 
libelous, and no sooner had the charge been 
made than he would have instituted his ac- 
tion; and as often as reiterated, would he have 
been seen seeking his remedy before the judicial 
tribunals of his country. 

" But why, we ask, does not the Herald, and other 
sheets friendly to Judge Jones, positively deny 
that he w T as intoxicated upon the trial of that im- 
portant criminal cause ? We have not seen a plain, 
positive denial of the charge, and we apprehend 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 91 

it has not been made, for the only reason that it 
could not be. Is it persecution, then, to charge 
him with being incapable of discharging his duty 
upon that trial? If it is, we plead guilty. If drunk- 
enness and debauchery are judicial virtues, he 
possesses them in an eminent degree. But if tem- 
perance and sobriety are requisite in a judge, then 
Jones is not fit for the position. If to expose his 
drunkenness and debauchery, and urging the fact 
as a reason for regarding him as unfit for the bench, 
is " assailing private character," then we plead 
guilty to that charge. If charging him with hav- 
ing bacchanalian feasts at his own house, is " in- 
vading the sanctity of the domestic hearth," we 
plead guilty to that. 

" We have opposed Judge Jone's election, and 
we expect to continue that opposition until the last 
ballot is deposited in the box, not out of any unkind 
feeling towards him, for we have none, but for high- 
er and more holy reasons. 

;i We agree with Jones in politics, and admit he 
possesses splendid talents, and quite as much legal 
ability as any man in our State, but he is a miser- 
able drunken bloat; and for that reason wholly 
unfit for the bench ; wholly unqualified for any po- 
sition of trust or responsibility. What! elect a man 
to the highest judicial office in the State — to a po- 
sition where he may, by unfaithfulness in that po- 
sition, sacrifice the property, the reputation, the 
liberty, and even the lives of citizens, when intox- 



92 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

icated, and their is no remedy. It is worse than 
madness to advocate the claims of such a man. 
We never can consent to entrust the adjudication 
of questions involving such momentous interests 
to a man, admitted by his friends to be constantly, 
more or less, under the influence of liquor. Infi- 
nitely sooner would we prefer a sober man upon 
the bench who differs with us politically; for in 
his hands, the liberty and the lives of citizens would 
at least be safe, however he might differ with us 
in relation to the character and rights of corpora- 
tions. Our fealty to party has never been ques- 
tioned ; yet our fidelity to the people, to society, to 
virtue, to morality, religion and the best interests 
of humanity, demand our opposition to Judge Jones. 
We do it reluctantly, but we do it with the ap- 
proval of our conscience as well as our judgment* 

" The Herald claims " the honor of a personal 
acquaintance with Judge Jones," and adds, that 
u while we have never seen him drunk, we have 
never seen him refuse to take a glass with a friend." 
Now, while no sober man acquainted with Judge 
Jones, will admit the truth of the first part of the 
above, every man equally well acquainted with 
him, will attest the truth of the last, 

There is, perhaps, a preliminary question that 
we ought to have settled with the editor of the 
Herald before we entered upon the discussion of 
the question as to whether Jones is an inebriate, 
and from that cause disqualified for discharging, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 93 

faithfully, the duties of a high judicial functionary, 
and it is this — " how much liquor can a man be 
under the influence of without being considered in- 
toxicated?'' It is said, but with how much truth 
we do not pretend to say, that the Herald will not 
admit a man to be drunk, " until he cannot sit, 
stand, nor lie in a ten-acre field, nor distinguish 
between his mouth and a hole in the ground." If 
this is the language of the Herald and the crite- 
rion by which he estimates the moral qualities of 
men, then we shall be unable to agree with him 
upon the preliminary question, and consequently, 
have no controversy with him. 

" We observe, the Herald, in his justification of 
Judge Jones, says, he "loaths, hates, abhors, and 
detests a drunkard." In these epithets we seethe 
evidence of more grace than usually falls to the 
lot of political editors. They seldom exhibit much 
contrition for past offences. 

" But, to be serious, we do hope Jones may be 
defeated. Should he be elected, with all his infirm- 
ities clinging to him, our confidence will be vast- 
ly impaired in the perpetuitj* of our Republican 
institutions and the ability of man for self-govern- 
ment." 

Judge Jones saw, at a glance, the effect this ar- 
ticle would have upon the thinking and better por- 
tion of his own party, unless something was dorie 
to counteract it ; but what should that 'something' 
be ? was a question of much intricacy — more 



94 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

knotty and difficult, than any he had been called 
upon to determine in the capacity of Judge or 
Chancellor. Yet it must be solved, and that speed- 
ily. When he met with the paper containing the 
above, he was travelling through the State upon 
an electioneering tour. He carried it to his room, 
at the hotel, where he stopped, and read it over : 
and again and again did he read it. He formed 
first one plan, and then another, but none that oc- 
curred to him had the approval of his judgment. 
He had now given the entire night to the conside- 
ration of this attack upon him, without having been 
able to come to a satisfactory conclusion ; and as 
the sun began to gild the eastern horizon he gave 
it up, in the utmost despair as he exclaimed, while 
he drew from his pocket a handkerchief, and wiped 
from his face the perspiration with which it w 7 as 
drenched as with a shower : " Why ! oh ! why did 
I commit that blunder ! 

"Where glow exalted sense and taste refined, 
There keener anguish rankles in the mind ; 
There feeling is diffused through every part, 
Thrills in each nerve, and lives in all the heart." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

' Oil ! how many deeds 



Of deathless virtue and immortal crime 
The world had wanted had the actor said 
I will do this to-morrrow V 3 Russet. 

Barber, our readers will recollect, was not pres- 
ent at the bar-supper, but was absent from home. 
He returned upon the train about five in the morn- 
ing, in pursuit of Judge Jones, to whom he had 
sent a record for the allowance of a writ of error 
and supersedeas in an important criminal case. 
On reaching the Judge's residence he learned, 
from Mrs. Jones, the fact that the Judge had gone 
to the State capitol for the purpose of procuring a 
pardon for Hamlin, and hoping to overtake him, 
he followed to the seat of government, but was a 
very few moments too late, and consequently com- 
pelled to wait for the evening train upon which 
he reached home, as above stated. # 

While at the ticket office, he was informed that 
Judge Jones had remained over, and intended going 
out on the six o'clock train. He, therefore, repaired 
immediately to the Hotel for the purpose of obtain- 
ing from the Judge, his record with the allowance 
of his writ before the Judge could leave. 



96 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

When he called he found the house closed, but 
after considerable " noise and confusion," he suc- 
ceeded in rousing a porter, who knew nothing 
about Judge Jones. He, accordingly, made his 
way to the apartments of the landlord, and after 
some delay, ascertained the number of the room 
occupied by the Judge. " But," remarked the 
hotel-keeper, " you had better let the Judge sleep, 
and call down after breakfast and see him. It has 
not been long since he retired, and he was most 
1 gloriously fuddled. ' I doubt very much whether 
you can do any business with him, even if you 
should be so fortunate as to get him up." 

I must see him immediately," answered Barber. 
" He intends going out upon the train which leaves 
in less than half an hour, and he is probably now 
up." 

The landlord protested. Barber insisted, and 
finally snatching a lighted candle, which stood upon 
a table, he started for the Judge's room ; on reach- 
ing which, he found Judge Jones incapable of be- 
ing roused. After several ineffectual efforts to 
awake him, he turned to his carpet sack, which 
chanced |o be unlocked, and took from it a bundle 
of papers containing the " aforesaid" record, and 
among the papers, his eye fell upon a sealed letter, 
addressed, in the hand-writing of his Excellency, 
the Governor, to the Sheriff of the county in which 
Hamlin had been tried, convicted, and was that 
day to suffer the extreme penalty of the law. Bar- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 97 

bcr stood a moment, though usually cool and de- 
liberate, now agitated beyond what in the most 
trying exigences of his life he had before experi- 
enced, he exclaimed : " Is that a pardon, a commu- 
tation, a respite, or any thing to do with the Ham- 
lin execution?" — answered his own interrogation 
by saying : "It must have something to do with it, 
else why written?" 

Again he attempted to arouse Jones, but was 
no more successful than before : all that he could 
get from the drunken official was an inarticulate 
grunt, quite as unsatisfactory as could be imag- 
ined. 

Barber here took out his time-piece and discov- 
ered that he had scarcely time to reach the depot 
before the train would leave. With the prompt- 
ness and decision of a man of intellectual and 
moral worth, determined to deliver the letter to the 
sheriff; and accordingly started for the train at the 
top of his speed — which he reached, and upon which 
he stepped, just as it had gained a motion that a 
second later would have precluded the possibility 
of safely accomplishing. 

Barber seated himself in a car, entirely alone. 
The agitated state of his mind was better felt than 
described, and wholly unfiitted him for compan- 
ionship : though several gentlemen and ladies were 
on board with whom he was intimately acquainted, 
he preferred to commune with his own thoughts. 
7 



98 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

After the lapse of an hour he broke out in the 
following soliloquy : " Jones doubtless knows ! It 
is scarcely possible that it is a pardon. If so, would 
Jones have incurred the risk of not having it reach 
its destiny in time to save the victim of his folly ? 
Impossible ! ! It cannot be a pardon. Well, is it 
a commutation of his punishment, or a respite? 
If either, and not a pardon, it is quite as impor- 
tant that it should reach its destination before the 
time for the execution shall have expired. " 1," 
continued he, " doubt if it is either or any of them. 
But what it is? Jones has been to see the Gov- 
ernor; and I recognize that superscription as the 
hand-writing of his Excellency : and if not a par- 
don, a respite or commutation, why should Judge 
Jones be carrying this thing to the Sheriff, at this 
particular time ? It must be one of the three. Why 
did he not proceed on his way last evening, and 
not defer till to-morrow ? 

* To-morrow is that lamp upon the marsh which the traveler never 

reach eth : 
To-morrow, the wrecker's beacon — wily snare of the destroyer. 
Reconcile conviction with delay, and to-morrow is a fatal lie V 

"But" continued Barber, "this folly — yes, more 
than folly — this crime of the Judge, is,-- upon re- 
flection, easily accounted for. I have no idea he 
intended to become drunken at the time of the 
Hamlin trial : yet he was quite intoxicated through 
its entire progress. The Bar of N. ought to share 
with the Judge the ignominy of that affair. He 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 99 

is amiable and rather passive in such matters, and 
drank at their solicitation, oftener than he would 
if left to his own volition. Intemperance is a so- 
cial vice, into which a good man is liable to 
fall. It is seldom that a man not distinguished 
for his social qualities falls into the sin of drunk- 
enness ; and it is quite as seldom that the penu- 
rious, close-fisted individual is submerged by the 
waves of intemperance : and hence Jones has been 
victimized. It is scarcely possible that a man of 
his peculiar temperament and mental organization, 
traveling over the State, and constantly coming in 
contact with members of the Bar, who are as con- 
stantly urging him to drink, should escape the vice 
into which he seems to have irretrievably fallen. 

" It is a theme for tears , to feel the soft heart hardening," 

I have not a doubt but he reached our town last 
evening, en route for N., and was met at the de- 
pot by Leblond and other kindred spirits, and per- 
suaded to remain over, and I have as little doubt 
he was by the same influence induced to drink im- 
moderately." 

Barber was now nearing the place of his desti- 
nation, when the engineer who had charge of the 
train, was discovered to be quite intoxicated, and 
putting the train through at a rate without a pre- 
cedent. 

The conductor stepped forward and charged 

him with being under the influence of liquor, and 

having it concealed about his person ; all of w T hich 
7* 



100 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

he doggedly denied, and refused to surrender his 
post ; telling the conductor, that, while he had his 
duties assigned him by the superintendent, he was 
entirely independent of the conductor, and would 
act his own pleasure. 

The conductor had scarcely retired to the back 
end of the train, when the engineer in passing 
through a deep cut, and around a curve at the 
extremity, saw some cattle upon the track, only a 
few hundred feet before him — he attempted to re- 
verse the power, but slipped, or rather stumbled 
upon a stick of wood, he had left carelessly in his 
way, missed his aim, and in an instant the locomo- 
tive was upon the cattle ; three of which were kil- 
led — the train off the track, and its engineer un- 
der its ponderous wheels, a mangled mass of las- 
cerated flesh. 

Barber was now about eight miles from the vil- 
lage of N., with sufficient time to reach it upon a 
fleet horse : but where was it to come from ? 

He started for a farm house, in the immediate 
vicinity of the disaster, in front of the door of which 
he saw a horse fastened to a post, and upon reach- 
ing it he untied the animal and mounted, while the 
owner stood at a distance, in amazement at the 
boldness with which the dextrous thief, as he sup- 
posed, galloped off his favorite animal. 

- Barber pushed his horse, which was somewhat 
logy, to the top of his speed; and would occasion- 
ally take out his watch, and as he flew along, count 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 101 

the minutes he had left. While descending a long 
and steep declivity, his horse fell, and threw Bar- 
ber some distance from him, but without either 
horse or rider sustaining any serious injury. For- 
tunately, the horse rose and stood perfectly still 
until Barber again mounted and was ready to pur- 
sue his journey. Very soon after this second dis- 
aster, Barber came in sight of the multitude and 
the scaffold. And as our reader has been al- 
ready apprised of what occurred between this and 
the delivery of the letter, we shall not stop to re- 
capitulate. 

The Sheriff immediately tore off the envelope 
and read aloud, not a complete pardon, but a com- 
mutation of the death penalty to perpetual con- 
finement in the State prison ; at which a greater 
manifestation of joy was evinced by the crowd than 
w r as exhibited by the convict. 

Judge Jones, whom we have left in a death-like 
slumber, at length arose ; and finding he was left 
by the train, repaired to the telegraph office ; but 
there had the pain and mortification to learn that 
the wires were severed and no communication could 
be had with N. His feelings, now wrought up to 
a perfect phrenzy, he immediately employed an 
extra train of cars, at a heavy expense — deter- 
mined to repair the wrong if in his power — and 
reached the scene of Barber's first disaster, but a 
few minutes after the latter had started on horse- 
back for N. 



102 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

The extra train was upon the ruins of its prede- 
cessor, before it was discovered, and the crash was 
frightful. But Judge Jones was among the few 
fortunate who received no material injury. After 
he recovered from the confusion occasioned by the 
shock, he concluded that all hope of reaching Ni 
in time to save Hamlin was cut off, and he entirely 
lost self-possesion, and raved like a mad-man. As 
soon as the paroxism had subsided, he became a 
pitious picture of agony, and exclaimed : 

"Why did not Heaven, in its just wrath, crush 
me beneath that broken and chaotic mass? If 
this train shall fail to reach there in time, I shall 
terminate my troubled existence, if there is death 
in that instrument;" laying his hand upon a well 
charged revolver, ensconced in his breast pocket. 

The lives sacrificed by the collision of the trains, 
it is no part of our present purpose to stop and re- 
count; but suffice it to say, they were offered 
upon the altar of rum ; and that the tears of scores , 
by it made widows and orphans, have embalmed 
their memory. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Virtue may be assail'd, but never hurt; 
Surpris'd by unjust force, but not enthrall'd; 
Yet even that, which mischief meant most harm, 
Shall, in the happy trial, prove most glory. 

Milton. 

Jenkin's confession, removed all doubt that lin- 
gered in the minds of any, as to the guilt of Ham- 
lin ; and measures were taken, immediately after 
the disclosure, to procure for him an unqualified 
pardon, to restore him again to his family and so- 
ciety ; all of which was done before he was con- 
veyed to the Penitentiary. 

Our readers will recollect that the name of Ham- 
lin, as well as Jenkins, had been announced in the 
public prints, as a candidate for State Senator: 
but as soon as suspicion attached to him of hav- 
ing murdered his brother, the papers which had 
hoisted his name, dropped it ; and at the death of 
Jenkins, his also met with the same fate ; while 
the names of other prominent men, in the Sena- 
torial District, were announced. After his libera- 
tion from prison, he determined to close up his 
business and retire to a farm in the country, and 
devote the balance of his life, in obscurity, to do- 
mestic peace and enjoyment. In pursuance of 



104 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

this plan, lie was, a few days subsequently, sitting in 
his office, which had been closed for several weeks, 
arranging papers, accounts, and dispatching busi- 
ness with his usual facility, when he was aroused 
by a large crowd about the door. He was taken 
by surprise, and a little startled, at the moment. 
Various thoughts flashed across the horizon of his 
mental vision. He, previously confiding, had lost 
confidence in the integrity of his fellow men. His 
first impulse was to escape through the back-dooi% 
and in that way to leave the mob — for such he, at 
that moment, regarded it — to the empty enjoy- 
ment of disappointment. But again, it occurred 
to him that no harm could be intended ; that 
though he had occupied the felon's cell and the 
felon's gibbet, yet subsequent developements, 
" strong as proofs of holy writ," had established 
his innocence ; and then, it would be unmanly to 
exhibit fear; and he decided, in less than half the 
time it has taken us to write it, to wait the result. 
In a few moments a huzza for Hamlin went up 
that made the wilkin ring, and he was loudly called 
for. He rose, stepped to the door, and bowed ; 
w r hen one — a gentleman of some celebrity, and 
considerable notoriety, from an adjoining county 
— stepped upon a store-box, which chanced to be- 
lying in the neighborhood of Hamlin's office, and 
remarked, that the concourse of people then before 
his Honor, Mr. Hamlin, was a delegation from dif- 
ferent portions of the Senatorial District ; met, at 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 105 

that time, for the purpose of respectfully request- 
ing him to be a candidate for the Senate. That 
many prominent reasons had dictated the move- 
ment, but most prominent, was his fitness for the 
position. That he had suffered all that could be 
inflicted upon man, but death; which infliction had 
grown out of an evil that was increasing and 
spreading, and destined, if not arrested, to deso- 
late the fairest portions of the globe. 

The speaker here paused for a reply. 

Hamlin, from the door of his office, said that no 
man could more fully appreciate their kindness 
than himself; that he had suffered much — every- 
thing but death and a consciousness of guilt; — 
that during his darkest hours he had enjoyed — 

" What nothing earthly gives or can destroy ; 
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy 
Of virtue's prize." 

He was now willing to make any sacrifice to ban- 
ish the evil of drunkenness from the land ; and, 
indeed, from all lands ; but he could not, as he 
he thought, be made believe that his promotion to 
a seat in the State Senate, would accelerate the 
happy day when no man would dare make his 
neighbor drunk ; that if he conld be persuaded of 
the fact, he would consent to be a candidate, not- 
withstanding it would be exceedingly unpleasant 
for him to come before the public. That there 
were other gentlemen's names now before the peo- 



106 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

pie, for the office, who would be able to render the 
cause much more valuable service than he could, 
and therefore he would, most respectfully, beg 
leave to positively decline the honor they had so 
kindly sought to bestow upon him. 

" You must be a candidate !" went up from scores 
and hundreds ; " and no other will answer our 
purpose ! " 

Again their was comparative silence, and the 
speaker upon the box proceeded to say, he was 
inclined to the opinion, that however averse Mr. 
Hamlin might be, to the use of his name in con- 
nection with the office, the people would vote for 
him — most gladly with his consent, but most cer- 
tainly with, or without it. 

Hamlin remarked, that the 'synagogues ofsatan' 
were numerous in the district, and as it was uni- 
versally known, in every county of which it was 
composed, that he had suffered severely from the 
evil of intemperance, it would of course be pre- 
sumed, he would advocate, to the extent of his 
ability, a stringent prohibitory law ; and that, there- 
fore, the liquor influence would present an unbro- 
ken front in opposition to his election. That in 
ordinary times, and under ordinary circumstances, 
to be a target, and receive the shots of malice from 
unprincipled and irresponsible demagogues, was 
quite as much as a man of common sensibil- 
ity could endure ; and that having passed so re- 
cently through a world of trouble, to come in con- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 10? 

tact with this army of drinking men — goaded to 
desperation by the thought of having the liquor 
traffic interfered with, many of the more reck- 
less and desperate would not hesitate to fling into 
his teeth his late misfortune, and he would come 
out of the fight, certainly not more than second 
best, covered with the filth and the slime of the 
contest, without remedy; and, therefore, must be 
permitted to decline the honor of being their stand- 
ard-bearer. 

" We," exclaimed numerous voices, " will take 
care of your character, and of the rum influence, 
too ! " And at this moment the crowd pressed 
upon him, while two of the more sturdy yeomanry, 
present, seized Hamlin, and bore him off upon 
their shoulders to the front of the printing office, 
where he was detained until a deputation was sent 
in with orders to withdraw the name of every man 
previously announced, and to run up Hamlin's. 
This done, they proceeded, in like manner, to two 
other printing establishments in the village, and 
produced like results. Heavy delegations were 
sent to each county-seat in the District, and the 
name of the other candidates for the office ordered 
out of the papers and Hamlin's inserted. 

Hamlin and his friends soon discovered that 
he had not been mistaken in anticipating unflinch- 
ing opposition from the liquor influence. On the 
evening after Hamlin was forced to be a candi- 
date, a caucus was held in a liquor store, with 



108 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

closed doors, and by dawn of the next morning, 
their plans and arrangements were matured, and 
messengers dispatched to every nook and corner 
of the District, with long visages, and the sad in- 
telligence that a temperance move had been made; 
and that, without extraordinary exertion, Hamlin, 
from whom the liquor traffic had no mercy to expect, 
would be elected. 

"Past hope of safety 't was his latest care, 
Like fallen Caesar, decently to die." 

Admiring the philosophy of Dryden, one of 
Hamlin's most formidable competitors chose vol- 
untarily to withdraw 7 from the contest, a few days 
previous to the election, and so informed his friends 
by every possible facility. 

Now came the tug of war. All the horses and 
buggies in the District, were brought in requisition, 
and for the two days preceding the day of elec- 
tion, hundreds of men were in motion, and actively 
passing from point to point in the District, and 
from house to house. In passing around, a friend 
of Hamlin chanced to come in contact with one of 
the patrons of the groceries, who was attempting 
to make his way home, but had fallen by the way- 
side and was lying in a helpless condition. He 
raised him up and helped him on to his desolate 
abode, which was not far distant. On his way, the 
poor drunken wretch urged our friend to use all 
his influence against Hamlin's election, and took 
from his pocket a bundle of handbills, which he 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 109 

said he was to circulate in his neighborhood. 
These bills, which were, without delay, carried to 
Hamlin and his friends, contained inflamatory ap- 
peals to the friends of the traffic, urging them to 
spare neither time nor money in procuring every 
man in the District opposed to a prohibitory law, 
to be early at the polls, nor cease their exertions 
until the ballot-box should be closed. 

To counteract the effect of these hand-bills with 
which the country had been flooded, the Hamlin 
party threw out one, and thousands of copies were 
sent into all parts of the District. About Hamlin's, 
there was nothing of the inflamatory character. It 
was an earnest and powerful appeal to the sober, 
moral, and better portion of community, to rally 
and save themselves, their friends and the country, 
from the blighting and scathing curse of intempe- 
rance. 

An excitement now pervaded the District, with- 
out precedent there, or elsewhere. The morning 
of the election day dawned upon hundreds of 
horses harnessed for the purpose of conveying the 
sick and infirm to the polls ; nor w r as there any 
abatement of exertion, upon either side, until after 
six o'clock, when the statute declared the ballot 
box should be closed. On one side there was a 
contest for principle — for morality — for peace, pros- 
perity, and every thing that tends to promote the 
welfare of society. Upon the other side, it was a 
contest into which entered all the baser passions 



110 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 






and feelings of our fallen nature, and consequently, 
the " latch-string " of every grocery and liquor- 
dealer in the District, was "hung out ;" and in all 
these abominable sinks of iniquity, whiskey, and 
all kinds of alcoholic drinks, were poured out, 
" without money and without price," through the 
entire day. The result was that every jail in the 
District was, during the following night and the 
next day, filled to overflowing with the wretched 
victims of the traffic. 

But virtue and temperance triumphed. The 
electors of the District had, in their candidate, 
Hamlin, a monument of the evils of spirituous 
liquors ; and when they heard his name mentioned, 
they were reminded of their duty to society. They 
rallied, and he was elected by an overwhelming 
majority ; yet he did not exult, nor allow his 
friends, when he had the means to prevent it. 






CHAPTER X. 

The brave do never shun the light ; 

Just are their thoughts, and open are their tempers ; 

Truly 3 without disguise, they love or hate ; 

Still are they found in the fair face of day, 

And heaven and men are judges of their actions. — Fiowe. 

To the invitation Barber sent Leblond, to meet 
him and discuss the political principles which sep- 
arated them, as partizans and politicians, Leblond 
made no reply through the press, but sent him a 
private note, which we give, as follows : 

" Sir: — You will find before the campaign closes, 
if you have not already, that I intend pursuing my 
own course. I shall not object to you doing what- 
ever you may think advisable. You will find my 
sentiments on the subject of public discussions, in 
the following lines of Otway — 

" You may have known that I'm no wordy man, 
Fine speeches are the instruments of knaves 
Or fools, that use them when they want good sense." 

L. LEBLOND/' 

As Leblond's note was as equivocal as it was 
insulting, Barber determined to be present at the 
time and place designated, lest Leblond should 



112 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

be there and take advantage of his absence. At 
the time appointed, Barber appeared and discus- 
sed his political opinions,, for about two hours, be- 
fore a large crowd; and when about to close, a 
drunken tavern-keeper, of the vicinity, whom Le- 
blond had sent to annoy Barber, called on him to 
define his position upon the Maine Law. 

Here Barber was somewhat nonplussed, but re- 
solved to make the most of it, by an effort to ex- 
pose Leblond as well as the landlord. 

" See here, old customer," said Barber, " you 
keep a tavern down here in the country three or 
four miles, I believe ?" 

"Well, I do." 

" You sell liquor, I suppose ?" 

" Well, I don't do any thing else." . 

"You don't do anything else, eh? It must be 
profitable?" 

" Yes ; I support my family honestly, and that 
is more than you lawyers do, unless you are terri- 
bly lied on." 

" How many children have you, my old fellow ?" 

" Just the same number that followed John 
Rogers to the stake, only, I believe, there is none 
at the breast." 

"Well," said Barber, " that is quite a respecta- 
ble family. Oh, pardon me ; I mean respectable 
in point of number." 

" Well, I guess as how my family is as respecta- 
ble as yours." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 113 

" That may be, but if you continue to sell liquor 
it may soon become questionable." 

" I am an honest man ; I want you to mind that, 
as you go along, old lawyer!" 

" Certainly, certainly!" said Barber; "men of 
your profession are all honest. But to whom do 
you sell liquor ? " 

" Why, to my neighbors, to be sure ; who else do 
you think I would sell to ? I never sold any to 
you, that's sartin." 

"No," said Barber; "nor that is not all, you 
never will." 

" Did you ever spend any thing to treat your 
friends with?" said Boniface. 

" Not very lately," said Barber, " nor, do I think, 
I ever will. If I can't get votes without buying 
them with whiskey, I shall be content to do with- 
out them." 

" That's just the difference between you and Mr. 

Leblond. He drinks a horn with me, every time 

he comes along ; and that is pretty frequently, 

about these times ; and he always pays for it, too ; 

and I don't think it's anybody's business but his 

own, neither, if he pays for it. And if he happen* 

to leave a few dollars with me, to treat his friends, 

I don't think that any of your business. If I give 

as much liquor as the money is worth, who is 

cheated, old feller ? Can you answer me that, old 

hoss?" 
8 



114 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" Oh, yes," said Barber ; " I can tell very soon 
— you are cheated ; Leblond is cheated, and his 
friends also ; if not the public." 

" Well, old lawyer, you think you 'r smart ; but 
you'll see, when the votes are counted, who is 
elected. If you don't come up missing, old parch- 
ment, about them times, I have lost my skill. Stick 
a pin there, will you ?" 

"That may all be true, and yet I shall not be 
cheated, as I do not wish to succeed, unless by 
honest means; and the man who buys votes with 
whiskey, even if successful, is worse cheated than 
the defeated candidate." 

" I guess, old hoss, if he pays the money, and 
gets the votes of his friends who drink his liquor, 
nobody is cheated bad but the candidate that's de- 
feated, because he was too stingy to treat a little." 

" That may comport with your notions of hon- 
esty, but I call it bribery ; and the candidate who 
is guilty of it should be sent, for a series of years, 
to the State prison." 

" Old lawyer, you would'nt darst tell Mr. Leblond 
that!" 

" No man who is capable of such baseness, is 
manly enough to resent it when charged with it. 
The elective franchise is a most high and invalu- 
able privilege ; and the man who will pander to the 
baser passions and appetites of sorded men, for 
the purpose of obtaining their support, and thus 
prevent freedom of thought and action at the bal- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 115 

lot-box, is as much worse than the individuals he 
imposes upon, as satan is lower than before he 
was cast out of heaven." 

" You tell Mr- Leblond that, old chap, and he'll 
thrash you like Sam Hill ; and, for a cent, I 'd give 
you a little ;" beginning to pull off his coat, 

" My friend," said Barber, " You say you sell 
liquor to your neighbors ; now, will you tell us 
how many you sell to? " 

" That's none of your business. That's my con- 
Barn." 

" Well, well," said Barber ; " you have been ask- 
ing me to define my position upon what you call 
the liquor law. This I will do if you keep good- 
natured, and answer my questions." 

" I did'nt come here to be questioned; but if you 
must know, I suppose about eight or ten regular 
customers." 

" They all have families ? " said Barber. 

" Yes ; they all have families, too." 

" Large families, I suppose ? " 

" Yes, Large families." 

u Well, they are poor men, too, I suppose," said 
Barber, " and labor hard ? " 

" They work hard, occasionally, and live on what 
they earn." 

" You get about all these eight or ten men earn, 

I suppose ? " 

" I reckon I gits a good deal of it." 
8* 




116 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" It takes about all you can make in your tavern, 
down there, to support your family decently?" 

" Is that any of your business ? " 

"Why, yes, I think so/' 

" Well, then, it does take about all I can scrape 
together ; But I do it honestly." 

" Of course, you do it honestly ! But if you get 
all the money your eight or ten customers earn, 
and can scarcely live comfortably, then what be- 
comes of the families of your customers, and 
where is their comfort and support to come from ?" 

" Oh, that's none of my business. I don't med- 
dle with other people's business. I would be a 
pretty fool, indeed, if men would come and offer 
me money, to refuse it. You wouid'nt catch a law- 
yer at that kind of game ; eh, old ferret-eye ! would 
you, ha ? " 

" That would depend very much upon circum- 
stances, whether you ought to take the money 
when it was offered to you, by those poor, hard- 
working men. You certainly ought not to take 
it from their families, who need it worse than 
yours, unless you give them an equivalent. Whis- 
key is certainly not a valuable consideration, for 
the husband and father re worse off with it than 
without it." 

" I've nothing to do with their families ; I have 
enough to do to keep my own. We 've got a Poor 
House ; if their is any danger of their suffering, 
let them go there." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 117 

" Well," said Barber, " I begin to feel some in- 
terest in this matter, as I live in this county, and 
am one of the tax-payers. Now, instead of send- 
ing these eight or ten families to the County Infir- 
mary, had we not better send you, and your family 
there ? It would be easier and cheaper to support 
and sustain one, tlian eight or ten, and if you are 
out of the neighborhood with your whiskey, these 
eight or ten men would be able to support their 
families respectably." 

Before Barber had closed the above sentence, 
the tavern-keeper was seen making his way out of 
the crowd, grumbling as he went. Barber called 
to him — urged him to return and hear his views 
upon a prohibitory law ; but he passed on, and 
doubtless, with no very pleasant reflections. 

" They that fear the adder's sting, will not 
Come near his kissing." 

said Barber. " It is truth my old friend is unable 
to withstand. We are told— 

'•' When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks." 

So, you see, my fellow-citizens, this foolish ; yes, 
this wicked practice of dram-selling, and dram- 
drinking, will not bear the touch of truth and inves- 
tigation. Its advocate, on this occasion, as its 
friends must upon all occasions, when brought to 
the point, act upon the principle, that 

'•The better part of valor is discretion," 

run off, and leave their cause to the ' tender mer- 
cies ' of its enemies, to be mutilated and torn, as 
their feelings and views may incline them. 



118 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Barber now went on to remark, that his opin- 
ions, as to the necessity of a prohibitory liquor law, 
were well understood in that community — that he 
never had any concealments to make — that his 
views upon that subject, could have nothing to do 
w 7 ith his duties, as a member of Congress, no more 
than his notions of the divinity of the Koran — that 
there could be no legislation by Congress, involv- 
ing the heavenly authority of the one, or the ne- 
cessity of the other, — that, as he disdained dis- 
guise, he would say he was in favor of a law that 
would amount to prohibition ; and that he cared 
not by what name it should be known, as it might 
be quite as efficacious by one as an other. 

He had no doubt Leblond would derive great 
satisfaction from the public avowal he had just 
made. " No declaration's for the public eye," w r as 
his competitor's motto — that he did not know but 
the result would prove it the true policy; yet he 
could not reconcile it with his views of manliness. 
Though he had made no public declarations upon 
that, or any other subject, he had made numerous 
contradictory private ones ; and as he had a speci- 
men of the private communications of the gentle- 
man — about as non-committal as anything he had 
seen in print, or elsewhere, — though private, it was 
in answer to a public challenge he had made him. 

Drawing from his pocket the note of Leblond, 
w r hich we have given at the beginning of this 
chapter, read it, and then added, that if he had 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 119 

felt inclined to trifle, he might have sent the gen- 
tleman, in answer, the following lines from Young's 
Lova of Fame : 

" A man of sense can artifice disdain. 
As men of wealth may venture to go plain : 
I find the fool, when I behold the screen, 
For, "tis the wise man's interest to be seen." 

"But," continued Barber, "I am in favor of a pro- 
hibitory law that will effectually protect us against 
the greatest curse with which God has ever per- 
mitted the human family to be afflicted ; and in 
comparison with which, all other moral evils sink 
into utter insignificance. This foulest wmelp of 
sin creates more misery, wretchedness, and woe, 
than a combination of all other causes. The 
ruinous extent of intemperance, w r ould never 
be known, or fully appreciated, until the bottled 
tears of millions upon millions of widows and or- 
phans — made such by its agency, with its other un- 
told miseries and wrongs — should be exhibited 
amid the scenes of the Judgment day." 

He w r ent on to say, that he would not stop to 
delineate the tendency of this vice to annihilate all 
the finer feelings of the human heart. That he 
should not stop to show how effectually it con- 
verted the kind husband and indulgent father into 
the veriest demon — how it robbed the social circle 
of its brightest ornaments- — how often it struck 
down the most honored among the sons of science, 
literature, and statesmanship — how it filled our 



120 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

earth with tears and woe — how it brutalizes all 
that come within its fatal grasp ; petrifying every 
thing by the magic of its touch ; but would content 
himself, by noticing its effects upon us as tax-pay- 
ers and members of society. 

He argued that in this golden age, things w 7 ere 
judged of in the light of the big dollar. That 
which reached into the pocket received immediate 
attention, and w 7 as the only avenue through which 
some men could be reached. That the pocket ar- 
gument was usually successful when all others 
failed. Here, he showed, by facts and figures, the 
expenses of the county to be about six thousand 
dollars, for the three years preceding; and that, by 
a careful inspection of the causes that led to the 
commission of crime, the startling statistical fact 
was derived, that a fraction over four-fifths of all 
the crime committed in their county, during that 
period, had been produced, either directly or indi- 
rectly, by the use of alcoholic drinks as a beverage. 
That if they would add to this the expense of sus- 
taining the poor, made so by intemperance, they 
might have some idea of the amount they paid 
annually, in the shape of a county tax, for the sup- 
port of this vice. A sum sufficient to support a 
first class academy in their county. That when 
they added the cost of the liquor, the time spent in 
drinking and recovering from its effects — the de- 
struction of property by fire, and other accidents 
constantly occuring from its use, they had an enoiN 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 121 

mous sum — an amount sufficient to endow and 
sustain an excellent College in their midst ; from 
which would flow out streams of intellectual and 
moral culture, irrigating and fertilizing the entire 
community. 

He insisted, that if a sister county would at- 
tempt to lay their count}^ under a contribution 
equal to the one extorted by this vice, that instead 
of laying down under the oppression, they would 
soon evince the spirit of " 76." That from lad to 
gray-haired sire, all would " draw the sword and 
throw away the scabbard," in maintenance of their 
rights. Yet they were submitting to an oppres- 
sion more grievous in its character, imposed upon 
them by the rum traffic. 

" Your duty, my fellow-citizens," said he, " to 
yourselves, your families, your friends, your neigh- 
bors, to community, to posterity, to truth to pro- 
gress ; your duty as citizens, as politicians, as 
Christians ; as men in the varied relations of life, 
imperiously demand that you should lose sight of 
all other questions — local or political, of every hue 
and complexion — in the selection of your legisla- 
tors, except the all-absorbing question of banish- 
ing intemperance, the invader of your rights, * more 
terrible than an army with banners,' " 



CHAPTER XL 

Now, one 's the better — then,, the other best ; 

Both trying to be victor, breast to breast : 

Yet neither conquer, nor is conquered ; 

So is the equal poise of this fell war. — Shakspear. 

In the Gazette, published a few days after Bar- 
ber made his temperance speech, we find the fol- 
lowing in its columns : 

u There is now going off, in our Congressional 
District, an exciting contest for Congress, between 
two eminent lawyers, both distinguished for their 
ability, but not alike distinguished for their fair- 
ness and candor. 

" 'Tis great, 'tis manly, to disdain disguise, 
It shows our spirit, or it proves our strength. 5 ' 

" Though we differ with Mr. Barber, politically, 
we are pleased with his frankness, and his manly 
method of electioneering, while we cannot accord 
to Mr. Leblond our entire approbation. 

" There is a disease, extensively prevailing, 
among the political aspirants of the present day, 
we loath and detest ; and we can find for it no 
more appropriate name than that of demagogue- 
ism. Whether Mr. Leblond has contracted the in- 
fection is a question we shall not now stop to in- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 123 

vestigate, but we will say, if Mr. Leblond should 
choose to c stoop to conquer,' the record made by 
Barber, thus far, justifies us in the conclusion, that 
he has no disposition to imitate Leblond's example. 
' Stoop to conquor,' is a sentiment unworthy of a 
talented, virtuous, and high-minded man, aspiring 
to be a statesman. It is unworthy of the enlight- 
ened age in which we live. 

"We very much reget the position Leblond has 
deemed it important for him to occupy upon the 
temperance measure. It is not involved in the 
fight ; and it is, therefore, neither honest nor manly 
in him to drag it into the controversy, and attempt 
improperly, to make capital out of it against a 
man too honest to disguise his sentiments upon 
that or any other subject upon which the people 
feel an interest. But what is worse, he is said to 
be at every point of the compass upon this subject. 
Chameleon like, he assumes the peculiar hue of 
those around him at the moment. If this be true, 
it is base, and exhibits him unworthy of public 
confidence. We have long since come to the con- 
clusion, that the man who will deceive you for the 
purpose of getting your vote, will betray you in 
sacrificing your interests after he has your vote, 
if he has any motive to actuate him ; for most cer- 
tainly, there is no more want of principle in the 
one than in the other. 

" By taking this coure we are incurring the fear- 
ful responsibility of bringing down upon our devoted 



124 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

head the maledictions of the Sachems of our party. 
But we say, let them come tumbling down thick 
and fast ; we can endure them — we can endure 
anything, in preference to be found fighting 
against truth, virtue, and the interest of the people. 
" The Maine law can scarcely be said to be a 
political question in our State, at the present time. 
That it will eventually become a political ques- 
tion we have no doubt. Why it should not — and 
one, too, of the first magnitude — is more than we 
can imagine. Why a question, involving the inter- 
ests and welfare of the people — the whole people, 
in every condition and situation, in every lane 
of life — should not be regarded in the light of a po- 
litical question, is profoundly mysterious. We 
have always supposed that political government 
was instituted for the protection of society, and 
that political parties were organized, encouraged, 
and kept up, for the purpose of compelling govern- 
ment to look closely and vigilantly after the inter- 
ests of society. It is possible that we may have 
been in error. If not, then this question must be- 
come, is now, a momentous political question. The 
Currency question, the Tariff question, and the 
question of Internal Improvements, have each in 
its day, been a political question intensely excit- 
ing ; yet none of these questions — all of them com- 
bined — involve less of the true interests of society, 
than the question of a prohibitory liquor law. It 
is claimed, upon no less authority than the Hon. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 125 

Edward Everett, that ardent spirits, within the 
last ten years, has cost this nation a direct expense 
of over six hundred millions of dollars, and an in- 
direct expense of six hundred millions more. — 
That it has, within that time, destroyed over three 
hundred thousand lives ; and consigned to our jails 
some two hundred thousand more; and made pau- 
pers of over one hundred thousand of our children. 
That it has, within that period, caused some two 
thousand maniacs, and produced over three thou- 
sand suicides — has made some tw r o hundred thou- 
sand widows, and not less than one million orphan 
children — instigated over fifteen hundred murders; 
and within the same length of time, burnt and de- 
stroyed over five millions of dollars worth of prop- 
erty. 

If these are facts, and w T ho can doubt them, sup- 
ported as they are by the testimony of some of the 
first political and literary men of the nation ? are 
they not startling, and sufficient to rouse every 
man capable of thought, upon the subject, and 
stamp the question as political, beyond controversy, 
and of the most weighty import ? 

" We lay no high claims to Cassandra gifts ; yet 
we will venture the prediction, that the time is not 
far distant, when, if a man present himself as a 
candidate for political preferment, the first ques- 
tion propounded to him, will involve his othordoxy 
upon a prohibitory liquor law, and that he must 
answer it affirmatively, or his hopes of success will 
be blighted." 



126 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

In the Republican, of the following week, a pa- 
per published iit an adjoining county, echoing the 
political sentiments of the Gazette, we find the 
following : 

" Halloo, there, you man of the Gazette, please 
tell us : When did you stop drinking ? We shall 
very soon expect from you an essay on moral phi- 
losophy ! Can you not favor us with a short hom- 
ily, in your next number, upon the moral and re- 
ligious culture of children, or an exegesis of some 
dark and mysterious passage of Holy writ ? You 
must not, however, contemplate a union of Church 
and State ; for, we assure you, it would meet with 
but little favor in this meridian. But, badinage 
aside, might it not be well for you to leave morals 
and religion to the clergy, where they properly be- 
long, while you devote your time and energies to 
less w T eighty matters, to wit : the political move- 
ments of the day ? 

" If Mr. Leblond be defeated, the sin must lie at 
your door, Mr. Gazette. We shall wash our hands 
of all responsibility connected with his defeat. We 
will keep our skirts clear, whatever course others in 
their wisdom, may see proper to take. We fear some 
personal matter between the Gazette and Mr. Le- 
blond, has had much to do with this opposition. 

" We must say, from a long and intimate per- 
sonal acquaintance with Mr. Barber, we esteem him 
very highly as a man and a citizen. He is a law- 
yer of distinction, and a perfect gentleman; and 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 127 

we may go further, he is an honest man and a sin- 
cere Christian, and we are attached to him and ad- 
mire him ; nevertheless, we cannot vote for him, 
simply because we differ from him politically. We 
could not vote for our father, nor a brother, if he 
differed w T ith us in politics. Barber is spending 
his energies in pulling down, what we are attempt- 
ing to build up ; and we, with our might, are pul- 
ling down and destroying what he is exerting him- 
self to establish. Now, it strikes us with consider- 
able force, that consistency, as well as fealty to 
party, requires us to use all honorable means 
within our reach, to sustain the nominee of our 
party. We are supporting measures, and not men. 
There is principle involved here, and hence w r e 
would sustain and vote for the representative of 
our principles if he were the merest 'man of strawy 
without reference to the ability, qualifications, or 
character of the man w T ho was his competitor. 
And this we conceive to be the duty of every par- 
tisan. We can imagine no state of things that 
would justify a different course. 

" Mr. Leblond does not get drunk that we know 
of; and so long as he keeps sober w 7 e care not if he 
drink every day, and every hour in the day, he is 
temperate enough for our purpose. 

" Whom may not scandal hit? those shafts are shot at a venture. 
Who standeth not in danger of suspicion'! that net hath canght the no- 
blest.' » 

" We hope our friend, of the Gazette, will give 
this matter the thought and reflection due it, be- 



128 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

fore he takes upon himself the responsibility of de- 
feating our candidate for Congress. That he can 
produce much dissension and trouble in his own 
county, if not in other portions of the District, we 
have no doubt. If from personal dislikes, or other 
reasons, he is unwilling to give Mr. Leblond that 
support to which he, as the regular nominee of the 
party, is entitled: we hope he will, at least, remain 
neutral. We admire the philosophy of the sick 
child, when, on being told he must swallow the 
nauseous drug, closes its eyes and gulps it down." 

All the papers of the District, belonging to Le- 
blond's political school, chimed in with the Repub- 
lican — the Gazette standing isolated and alone in 
its opposition to Leblond. To the above article, 
the Gazette, in its next issue, replied as follows : 

" This gulping process, and blind adhesion to 
party — particularly, when there are no political is- 
sues ; no principles upon which the American peo- 
ple are, or can be divided — a mere scramble for 
patronage ; a contest for the ' loves and fishes' — 
we regard as one of the most unfavorable indica- 
tions in the signs of the times, and one that har- 
bingers anything but the growth, progress, and 
welfare of our country. 

"The religious and literary press present an unbro- 
ken front, in hostile array against intemperance. 
Now, is there any reason — can any reason be urged 
why the political press should not fall into the 
ranks, and labor unitedly for the banishment of 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 129 

this great and fearful curse of our race. Let us 
suppose this state of things for the brief period of 
two or three years : who could estimate the result? 
Tippling would immediately become unpopular. 
The manufacturers of, and dealers in liquors, would 
seek other investments, upon the principle that 
rats desert a sinking ship, and the traffic would 
cease almost as by magic. 

" We cannot be in error as to the potency and 
influence of the press ; all will acknowledge it. It 
makes public sentiment — regulates the actions of 
men — brings men, measures, and systems into no- 
tice, andrenders them popular or odious, at its will; 
What a responsibility ! What a coming to judg- 
ment awaits those who wield the press, if it shall 
be found they have compelled the scale of virtue 
to kick the beam. Are not those, then, who stand 
at the helm of the press — who guide and give di- 
rection to it — bound by every tie that can bind 
man to man ; by every tie that can bind him in the 
relation he sustains to heaven and the arbiter of 
worlds, to throw the entire weight of its influ- 
ence in the side of virtue ? Vice is, and has been 
since the fall, we had almost said, the only formi- 
dable enemy of the human race ; and in whatever 
shape it may rear its deformed head, it is every 
good man's pleasure, as well as duty, to contribute 
his utmost effort to strike it down. How much more 
imperious the duty of those who stand upon the 
w r atch tower to " cry aloud and spare not?" 
9 



130 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" When an alarming vice extensively prevail*?, 
the press is criminally at fault. When the press 
brings its powerful park of artillery to bear upon 
any particular vice — that vice, whatever shape it 
may have asssumed, however deep it may have 
sunken its roots in the popular prejudice or have 
been sustained by the allied powers of darkness — 
it is blown to the four winds of heaven. 

" For one, we shall act fearlessly, and indepen- 
dently ! We shall do 

•'• What conscience dictates to be done" 

and let consequences take care of themselves. 
This is duty, and a man is in little danger of erring 
when in the faithful discharge of his duty. 

" He that has light wi:Mn his own clear b:e?st, 
Way sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day ; 

But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, 

Benighted, walks under the mid-cay sun; 

Himself is his own dungeon." 

"But, we are told that Barber will, if elected to 
Congress, vote against and oppose the cherished 
measures of our party. What measures, we ask? 
We repeat, there are no party measures. The 
old measures are all settled, and the people are 
acquiescing in the settlement. How much divine 
agency there was at work in bringing about this 
happy state of things — that the people, during the 
repose, might roll on this great temperance refor- 
mation to the final extinction of the terrible scourge , 
—we shall not now stop to enquire. 



TOE UNJUST JUDGE. 131 

P Before we close this article, we wdll give our 
readers an item that will be news to most of them. 
Last Spring we jumped upon the cars, and in a 
few hours, was in Washington city. After the 
lapse of a short time we strolled down to the cap- 
it ol, and w T as there met by two or three members, 
in the hall of the House, who took our arm and 
invited us to accompany them — which we did — first 
up one flight of stairs, and then another, through 
one narrow passage after another, until we finally 
came to a door, upon which our friends gently rap- 
ped, and was answered from the inside, by " who's 
there ? " The pass-word was given by us, and we 
were admitted into a room where we found a ta- 
ble covered with provisions and liquors, and we 
were requested to eat and drink. We lingered 
there, purposely, for near an hour, to solve, if pos- 
sible, the enigma. During our stay, we saw some 
thirty or forty members come and go, but observed 
no money was paid. The more we tried to un- 
ravel this strange affair, the more mysterious it 
appeared to us. After leaving the room, w r e in- 
quired of one of the members what it meant; and 
was told the clerks, door-keepers, messengers, 
post-masters, and other ha,ngers on, in and about 
the capitol,had raised by subscription among them- 
selves, the amount necessary to defray this expense. 
But still we did not fully comprehend it until du^ 
ring the last hours of the session, a bill w^s intro- 
duced into the House, by a member we had oth 
9* 



132 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

served frequently passing up to the " refreshment 
room," to pay these subalterns an extra allowance 
of two hundred and fifty dollars each. Now, it 
was, that the object of this grocery in the Nation- 
al Capitol, flashed across our mind. Members by 
the score, had visited this room, during the day and 
evening, and had drank of their liquor, and now 
they were called upon to put their hands into the 
public treasury, and take out about the round sum 
of one hundred thousand dollars. It was too late 
for discussion. Several distinguished gentlemen 
endeavored to obtain the floor and expose the 
glaring outrage, but were unable. While some 
of the patrons of the Congressional grocery were 
crying " order, order!" others were bawling, " ques- 
tion, question ! Give us a chance to vote ! Let us 
have no speeches ! Question, question |" And 
the bill passed in the midst of a scene that would 
have disgraced a back-woods country tavern, on 
Holy- eve night, 

" Disgusted at the ludicrous farce, leaning upon 
the arm of a young gentleman of our acquaintance, 
who had been, for the preceding two years, a clerk 
connected with one of the departments, at a salary 
of fifteen hundred dollars per annum, we saun- 
tered up the Avenue. " Where do members get 
their authority for this novel proceeding?" we in- 
quired. 

" They do it," said he, without authority." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 133 

"But, how can conscientious men, acting under 
oath, be so reckless of the people's treasure ? " 

"That's easily got along with. Conscience with 
few exceptions, has little to do with such matters. 
That is only one item," continued he, "and, should 
I mention to you the ten thousand methods resort- 
ed to here, for bleeding the public treasury, it 
would challenge your credulity." 

" Why," answered we, " is there no integrity 
left in the human heart ? " 

"It cannot be denied that drunkenness has a di- 
rect agency in all these peculations upon the gov- 
ernment funds" 

" In what way ?" said we. 

" You have seen how the extra allowance was 
voted through. The probability is, that not a mem- 
ber was spoken to upon the subject. The liquor 
and refreshments were purchased and taken to the 
capitol, and members invited to partake, with a 
kind of implied understanding that they were to 
vote us extra pay. Now," continued he, "if the 
city authorities want an appropriation — an old, 
stale Indian claim is to be paid — a mail line of 
steamers to be contracted for, or other stupendous 
project for the depletion of the treasury, set on 
foot, money is raised in proportion to the magni- 
tude of the appropriation asked for, and this 
money put into the hands of men who will use it 
skilfully ; and members are watched, and even 
Senators, are treated into a conviction of the just- 



134 • THE UNJUST JUDGE". 

ness and propriety of placing their eacreligioucr 
hands upon the public funds for private purposes; 
and this is done with out regard to party. And as 
the members of both political parties are generally 
implicated in these frauds upon the government, 
the party papers dare not attack the v ill any. There 
is usually a mutual dependence between political 
editors and politicians, and hence these enormi- 
ties are tolerated and not exposed. 5 ' 

" Why, that is a terrible state of things L"' 

* It is nevertheless true. Before men, as society 
has hitherto been organized, can become success- 
ful politicians, they must contract the habit of tip- 
pling, more or less; and before they pass through 
the various grades and stations that fit them for a 
seat in Congress, many of them become regular 
and confirmed drunkards ; and the cupidity of the 
unprincipled scoundrels, who willlend their agency 
in this crusade against the national treasury, seize 
upon this vice and use it for their base purposes. " 

" Do these plunderers of the treasury, often suc- 
ceed?" 

" Much more frequently than you would im- 
agine. The men you elect and send for the pur- 
pose of representing your interests and protecting 
the treasury of the Republic, many of them, are 
reached through this seductive vice, and their in- 
fluence brought to bear, in this way, upon these 
grand and magnificent frauds upon the public 
treasury." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 135 

u The above is the testimony of an intelligent 
and conscientious young man, who unhesitatingly 
refused to take the extra allowance, and who had 
all this kind of thing for tw r o years under his ob- 
servation. Upon evidence so clear and free from 
suspicion, who would dare claim that a dissipated 
and drunken man was fit for any position of trust 
or responsibility ? For our own part, we never 
expect to vote for a man of dissolute habits for 
any office, high or low — we care not to what po- 
litical party he belongs. We hope soon to see the 
day when merit and true worth will constitute the 
claims — and the only claims — to office. Until this 
period shall arrive, the people are greatly exposed 
to imposition from brawling demagogues and 
empty pretenders." 



CHAPTER XII. 



" To what gulfs 

A single deviation from the track 
Of human duties, leads.- — Byron. 

"We have had a sad time since you left," said 
an interesting little girl, that had the appearence 
of having seen about ten summers, to Leblond, as 
he unlocked the door of his office ; " and mother 
wishes you to call round as soon as convenient. 
Where have you been so long, Mr. Leblond? I 
have been here three or four times a day, for the 
last two weeks, and have not found you till now." 

u Oh, 1 have been in the country, visiting my 
friends," answered Leblond. " What is wrong 
with you, sis, this morning?" 

" Father has been acting so badly — he has been 
treating us so unkindly ! He turned us all out in 
the rain, the other night, and we got as wet as ducks., 
and little George is quite sick since. Mother tried 
to get in with the little fellow to prevent him from 
getting wet 3 but when she went to the door, fa- 
ther would push her back, slam the door in her 
face, and stand against it ! Poor little dear, how 
wet and cold he got ! Mother has rocked him in 
the cradle every night since, and now she is sick," 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 137 

11 Is your father at home ?-" 

" No indeed ; he is in jail, and has been, nearly 
ever since you left." 

" In jail ?" Inquired Leblond, " For what?" 

" They say he broke into a warehouse, one night ? 
and took a dram of whiskey, and that he must go 
to the Penitentiary. You will not let them send 
him there for that little thing, will you, Mr. Le- 
blond?" 

" Certainly not, if I can prevent it. He ought 
not to go to the State prison for so petty an offence 
as that." 

" Ma does nothing but cry and rock little George, 
since pa went to jail. We are all so sorry for pa, 
he has talked so good, and been so kind to us since 
he went to prison. He has been sober all the time,^ 
wants us to get him out, and says he will never 
drink any more. When he is sober, he is very 
good and kind to mother and the children. We 
want him home again; you will help us, Mr. Le- 
blond, won't you ? " 

"I will," said Leblond, and immediately locked 
his office, and started to see Mrs. Sibley. 

Upon entering her door he remarked, ""Voup 
daughter has been narrating a most unfortunate 
state of things, which appears to have occurred 
since I left. I hope the picture is not quite as dark 
as she has drawn it ? " 

" The picture could not be overdrawn — the half 
has not been told ; " sighed Mrs. Sibley. " And," 



188 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

continued she, " Jane could give you but a meagre 
idea of the condition of things, and the trouble we 
have had since you left town, on account of Mi*. 
Sibley. You are the only person of his acquain- 
tance who can exert over him a beneficial influence. 
No sooner had you left then he became entirely 
unmanageable, and has given us a world of trouble. 
I am so distressed, life has become a burden. Oh! 
that the curtain would drop upon this scene ! I 
sicken and grow faint at the thought of its exten- 
sion. I have hugged the delusive hope that I should, 
sooner or later, be able to reform him ; but en- 
treaties, tears, and prayers, are alike unavailing; 
and he seems to be letting himself down, lower and 
lower, and every succeeding day cutting himself 
more and more effectually loose from every re- 
straint; and now, I fear, he is in difficulty from 
which it will be extremely difficult to extricate him.*' 
While she wept, in the wildest despair, for several, 
minutes, and then sobbed — " Misery and suffering 
is my doom until the grave, which I trust is not 
distant, shall come to my relief. 

" Jane informs me he is in prison. What are the 
circumstances which led to his arrest ?" 

" The facts are few. I was present at the ex- 
amination before the magistrate, and it appeared 
that Thomas Johnson, about nine o'clock, two 
weeks ago to-morrow night, had occasion to step 
into his warehouse; and after he had unlocked his 
door, he heard a noise — immediately struck a light, 



fHB unjust judge. 13U 

and discovered Mr. Sibley concealed behind a cask 
of liquor; that he enquired of him how he got there, 
and what he was doing; to which Mr. Sibley replied, 
he raised a window sash and entered; that he 
had taken nothing; and intended to take nothing 
but a glass of whiskey ; and that, having got it, 
he was ready to leave; that he was induced to go 
in, for the reason he had been without liquor nearly 
all day, and without the means of getting it other- 
wise. You will now tell me, frankly, what you 
think of his case, so I may be prepared for the worst 
feature it can assume ? Can it be, he is liable to 
be sent to the State prison for taking only one glass 
of liquor ? We feel that the poor, unfortunate man 
deserves our sympathies rather than our censure.'' 

Leblond said he had no doubt a technical bur- 
glary had been committed, for the commission of 
which, Mr. Sibley, if vigorously prosecuted, might 
be sent to the State prison; but as Sibley had few 
personal enemies, he hoped the prosecution could 
be suppressed. He would do all he could to avoid 
a prosecution, but if he should find himself unable 
to prevent it, then he would defend him with all 
the power he possessed. 

Mrs. Sibley hoped to God he would. She said 
he had been very cruel to her and the children, but 
it was now more his misfortune than his fault. — 
She said they had earned some money, the two 
boys had labored about two months, at four dol- 
lars per month ; the girls had been making some 



140 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

shirts while she had been washing; and, that 
among them, they had accumulated about twenty- 
five dollars, the amount due upon their rent, and 
they were threatened with being ousted if they did 
not pay it ; that Sibley had managed to get the 
most of it, which he expended for liquor. " He,\ 
continued she, "saw me receive six shillings from 
a lady, for whom I had done a large washing, and 
insisted upon rfty giving it to him, but knowing he 
intended to buy whiskey with it, I of course refused ; 
he insisted and pressed the matter until I told him 
it was useless to urge farther ; when he became 
enraged and struck me a violent blow, and I fell 
to the floor and was, for sometime, insensible. — 
When I recovered my children were standing 
around my bed, where they had carried me, weep- 
ing. I saw no more of Mr. Sibley, for two days, 
and have not since seen the six shillings. When 
I fell I suppose he took the money fropi my bosom. 
I thought so, not only for the reason the money 
was gone, but because of his long absence. The 
unprincipled liquor retailers would not have kept 
him about them a moment longer than his money 
was exhausted. Mr. Leblond, you may think it 
pretty strong language for a lady to use, but I must 
say, if the devil do not catch these scamps,! am 
unable to see the use to which a hell could be put," 
and added, she could detain him for many hours in 
relating her grievances, and the bad conduct of her 
unfortunate and ruined husband; but that, not- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 141 

withstanding, she could not endure the idea of his 
going to the Penitentiary. 

" I have," continued she, " been frequently at 
the jail, since his imprisonment, and he promises 
reformation; and it may be if he can be saved 
from the consequences of this folly — for it was not 
a crime — he may yet live to be a blessing to his 
family, and useful to society. 1 have nothing with 
which to compensate you, but hope you will spare 
no pains." 

Leblond said he wanted no pay, and would 
exert himself to save him. The term of Court 
at which he was to be tried, was approaching; 
and Leblond, anxious to see his old friend and 
preceptor again enjoying his liberty, called up- 
on the public Prosecutor to ascertain if the pros- 
ecution could not be stopped, but was informed, 
u that such had been the base and infamous char- 
acter of his treatment to his family, that commu- 
nity," in the language of the Prosecutor, " was 
down upon him; that public opinion was op- 
posed to his enlargment until he had paid the ut- 
most penalty the law could inflict upon him;" 
also, the additional fact, that Barber was retained 
to assist the Attorney for the State in the prosecution. 
Leblond immediately repaired to the prison, for 
the purpose of having an interview with Sibley. 
He found Sibley, who was when, perfectly himself, a 
clear-headed and talented lawyer, keenly alive to 
a sense of the critical position he occupied. 



142 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

After along and tedious consultation, it was dc» 
termined between them, that Sibley must rely for 
hope upon the inexperience of the young Attorney 
for the State, who was, by no means, skilled in the 
technicalities of criminal pleading. 

The Grand Jury found and presented "a true 
Bill " for burglary, in which it was charged, " that 
Sibley, on the twenty-seventh day of September, 
about nine in the night season of the same day, 
feloneously, burglariously and forcibly, broke and 
entered the warehouse of Peter Snook's with in- 
tent then and there one gill of whiskey of the val- 
ue of three cents., the property of Thomas Johnson, 
then and there being found, to steal take and carry 
away, contrary to the statute in such case made 
and provided, and against the peace and dignity of 
the State." 

The Defendant, after a careful examination of 
the Indictment, insisted upon his constitutional 
right of a speedy trial. Thereupon a Jury was 
called, empanneied, and sworn, a true verdict to 
render occording to the law T and the evidence. 

Barber, for the State, rose and said he regretted 
the condition of his former friend and competitor 
at the bar, but necessity compelled him to say, the 
Defendant was guilty as he stood charged; that 
the tetismony would disclose that on the night of 
the tw T enty-seventh of last month, the Defendant, 
Sibley; had entered the warehouse of Thomas 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 143 

Johnson, by hoisting a window sash, and stole one 
gill of whiskey." 

Barber said that he had no language adi- 
quate to the task of conveying a faint idea of his 
feelings upon so solemn an occasion. That when 
he reflected, the Defendant was a member of the 
bar — once an honorable and distinguished mem- 
ber — with as high hopes and flattering prospects 
as any man in, or out of the State : it pained him 
to the heart to see him now a miserable wreck of 
his former self; without hopes, without money, 
without every thing — even without friends, except 
his unfortunate wife and children ; and they, and 
they alone, of all the world, notwithstanding his 
brutal treatment of them, still clung around 
him. The man, once the pride of the community 
in which he lived, now so low that 

"None so poo:* as do him reverence.' 5 

It was not only painful to the feelings, but was 
deeply humiliating, to see a man of such brilliant 
talents and high cultivation, reduced to so deplor- 
able a condition, by tippling. With lofty and in- 
teresting prospects beckoning him onward and 
upward, he had allowed a beastly appetite to dis- 
troy him, regardless of the fate of an affectionate 
wife and dependant children. His duty compelled 
him to insist upon a verdict of guilty. The pen- 
alty, he conceded, was very severe, yet the man who 
would commit a Penitentiary offence for the sake 
of three cents worth of liquor, could be of no pos- 



144 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

sible use to himself, his family, or society — was a 
living, walking, nuisance ; and it would be better 
for himself, for his family, and the community in 
which he lived, to have him in prison than out.\ 
There he w T ould have time and opportunity for re- 
flection — for reformation — for resolves and re-re- 
solves, with ample space to carry them into practice. 

Mr. Leblond rose and said, in substance, their 
defence was a legal one ; and that it might be true 
if his client escaped the Penitentiary, he would be 
less indebted to his own virtuous purposes and ac- 
tions, than to the blunders and want of learning of 
prosecuting counsel. That it was with extreme 
pleasure he was able to announce to them the 
startling fact, notwithstanding the confidence of 
counsel on the part of the State, that his client 
was in no more danger of being immured in the 
Penitentiary, than his friend Barber was, of being 
elected to Congress ; and after indulging in several 
other light and facitious remarks, sat down. 

The State introduced Tom Johnson, who testi- 
fied that he had rented the warehouse of Peter 
Snooks, who was the owner, and that he was in 
possession at the time of the breaking : that Sib- 
ley had acknowledged, when he found him in the 
house, he had stolen and drank about one gill, 
which was worth two or three cents. Here the 
State rested the case. 

On the part of the defence, no cross-examina- 
tion was desired ; and the State having rested, Le- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 145 

blond rose and moved the Court to discharge the 
prisoner upon the ground of a defect in the indict- 
ment, to wit : that the warehouse was laid in Peter 
Snookes, while it was in the possession of Tom 
Johnson — claimed, it aught to have been laid in 
Johnson — produced two or three authorities upon 
the point, and closed. 

Barber stated to the Court that he had paid little 
or no attention to the indictment ; but supposed, of 
course, it was correctly drawn, and closed by re- 
marking that : 

'•Quirks and quihles have no place in the search after truth." 

The Court ruled the defect, in the indictment, 
fatal ; and directed the jury to return without leav- 
ing their box, a verdict of not guilty of burglary, 
but guilty of petit larceny, and find the value of 
the property ; all of which was done — the pris- 
oner remanded — and the jury discharged. 

On the morning after the conviction of Sibley of 
petit larceny, he requested the Jailor to have his 
two boys — one about eleven, and the other thir- 
teen years old,- -brought to see him. After the 
interposition of the necessary length of time, the 
boys were admitted into the cell. When the fath- 
er addressed them as follows : 

"My dear boys, you see my condition ; you see 

the wretched state of things to which my folly 

has reduced me. Had it not been for my habits 

of intemperance, I might have been, if not the 

first, certainly among the first lawyers of the State. 
10 



146 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Might have been in affluent circumstances. Yes, 
rich; with means of giving each of you a thorough 
collegiate course, as well as a finished education 
to each of your sisters ; with an ample fortune left 
for your mother and myself to lean upon in the 
decline and evening of life. I could have reached 
almost any political position in the State and na- 
tion, to which my vanity might have induced me 
to have aspired. But I have sacrificed my personal, 
and my political hopes. I have sacrificed wealth; 
the hopes of my family— their peace and comfort. 
I have sacrificed reputation and character, princi- 
ples and conscience, selfrespect and self confi- 
dence — every thing — all gone ! Nothing left ! — 
simply because I allowed myself to contract the 
ruinous habit of drinking. It came upon me 
gradually, but certainly, until I am ruined, undone; 
disgusted with myself and the rest of the world. 
No confidence in man, and less in myself — a poor, 
miserable, three-cent thief; without hope in this 
world or the world to come. Now let me request 
you never to drink even one drop of any thing 
that will intoxicate ; lest, like your unfortunate 
father, you may gradually contract the habit, when 
your ruin — temporal and eternal — will be sealed. 
In order that you may avoid the fatal rock upon 
which your father has been wrecked, will you not 
swear eternal hostility to alcoholic drinks ?" 

His sons, having signified their intention to take 
the oath, were requested to hold up their right 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 147 

hands, when he administered to them the follow- 
ing oath : "You, and each of you, do most sol- 
emnly swear, by the living God, you will never 
drink any spirituous liquor, as a beverage ; that 
you will never traffic in the same, and that you 
will wage a w T ar of extermination against its use, 
as w r ell as abuse. This you promise, as you shall 
answer to Almighty God, in the judgment of the 
Great day." 

" Oh ! " continued Sibley, "had I taken a simi- 
lar oath in youth, and observed it faithfully, what 
a blessing would it not have been to myself, my 
family, and the community in which I have lived? 
But I am a poor, ruined, degraded wretch ; unfit to 
live and unfit to die. 

" Now, return to your poor, distressed mother 
and sisters, and make them as happy as in your 
power. Tell them I, too, have taken a solemn 
oath, never again to let liquor enter my lips ; and 
urge them to pray God that I may be enabled, re- 
ligiously, to observe my solemn vowto heaven. " 

Towards the close of the term the court directed 
the Sheriff to place Sibley at the bar ; and at the 
close of the morning business, Judge Alban thus 
addressed the prisoner : 

" John Sibley, stand up ! At the present term of 

this Court, the Grand Jury of this county, fifteen 

in number, chosen to that position on account of 

their known and acknowledged integrity, wisdom., 

and virtue, have found and returned, upon their 
10* 



148 THE UNJUST JUDGE. . 

solemn oaths and affirmations, against you, a bill 
of indictment for burglary. Upon this charge, if 
found guilty, you must have been confined for a 
series of years, in the Penitentiary, and there kept 
at hard labor — shut, out from society — a branded, 
degraded criminal. Your fragile physical consti- 
tution, which has already begun to give way, from 
your dissolute habits, would probably have sunk 
beneath the restraint there imposed upon you; and 
it would, in all human probability, have been your 
grave. But for an inexcusable blunder on the part 
of the officer of this Court, charged with preparing 
the indictment, it would now be my painful duty, 
in pursuance of the laws of the State, to consign 
you to a felon's cell ; to deprive you of liberty ; to 
take from you the blessings of society — the 'atten- 
tions of your friends and their sympathy — deprive 
you of all that could attach you to life. And I 
am by no means satisfied that it would not be bet- 
ter for this community — better for your family and 
for yourself— if that mistake had not occurred. 
Had you went to prison, in the solitude of your lone 
cell, you would have had ample time for thought 
and meditation; and had you survived the period 
allotted, you might have come out a better man; 
and you might, to some extent, be better prepared 
to resume those duties which you once so faithfully 
discharged to your family and society. It is true, 
an indelible mark would have been set upon you, 
but an honest, upright course of conduct, for a few 



T4IE UNJUST JUDGE. 149 

years, would partially have restored you again to 
the confidence of society ; and though you would 
be iii a crippled condition, you could, I doubt not, 
have passed down the stream of time much more 
agreeably to yourself, and others with whom you 
might chance to be connected. But now, you are 
soon to be mixing again with the w r orld, and by 
your ' profligate habits, carry pestilence into the 
bosom of domestic society ;' and it is difficult to 
conjecture where your unhappy career may termi- 
nate. 

" Now, Sibley, you are a man of talents, and 
ought to be a man of sense. Your former posi- 
tion in Society — your position atthe bar — your pro- 
found legal and political knowledge, induce me to 
regard you as more than" an ordinary man. Will 
you not reform and be yourself again ? Let me 
conjure you, by all you hold dear and sacred in 
life-; to turn. This Court feels a deep interest in 
your Reformation. We recollect, with a feeling 
compounded of pleasure and pain, some of your 
distinguished and brilliant efforts at this bar. — 
Pleasure at the promise of future usefulness you 
gave, and pain that we have been doomed to dis- 
appointment. This Bar feels a deep interest in 
you. Had your powerful intellect, backed up by 
a virtuous life, been exercised in rolling back the 
turbid wave of crime that is spreading ruin, deso- 
lation and death around ; what obligations might 
you not have thrown society under to you ? But 



150 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

more, — a most solemn and sacred duty to your 
family, requires that you should reform, and go 
immediately to their aid and protection. 

" For my own part," continued Judge Alban, " I 
have but little confidence in your reformation. A 
hope can scarcely be entertained for a man who 
has no self-respect ; who is so far lost to every 
sense of common decency, as to inflict violence 
upon the person of the wife of his bosom; and 
while she was in a state of insensibility, upon the 
floor, from the effects of the brutal blow you had 
given her, take from her person the pittance she 
had earned over the wash-tub, and made yourself 
beastly drunk, the better to qualify you for your 
cruelty towards her, whom you have solemnly 
sworn at Hymen's altar, to love, cherish and pro- 
tect. 

" Would that I could reach the inmost recesses 

v m 

of your corrupt heart, cicatrized as it is, with insen- 
sibility and guilt, that I might feel around its dark 
cavities for some dormant germ of love to God or 
man, upon which to hang a hope that you w r ill be 
yourself again, but 

'Where is that Promethean heat 

That can thy light relume?" 

" The sentence of this Court is, that you be taken 
to the jail of this county, and confined in the dun- 
geon thereof, for the period of thirty days, and that 
you be fed upon bread and water only, and that 
you pay the costs of this prosecution. Mr. Sher- 
iff remand the prisoner." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Men are but children of a larger growth ; 

Our appetites are apt to change as theirs, 

And full as craving too, and full as vain. — Dry den. 

A few evenings subsequent to Sibley's trial. 
Judge Alban, Prosecutor Lahm, Sheriff Sikes and 
four or five members of the bar, met in a saloon, 
and after drinking freely, Leblond commenced 
narrating Judicial anecdotes, which Judge Alban 
immediately recognized as a part of his own his- 
tory. For sometime the Judge attempted to repel 
the force of them by an assumed dignity, but it 
was too thin a covering to conceal his wounded 
pride. By this time the company was joined by 
several other legal gentleman, who aided in pour- 
ing in upon the Judge, hot shot from every direc- 
tion. While some were quoting portions of his 
charges to the Grand Jury, and other weak sayings 
of the Judge, in which he had evidently been court- 
ing public favor, others were pretending to give 
the Judge's experience and want of success in his 
political struggles and electioneering schemes. 

" Now," said the Judge, u a truce to this, and I'll 
call in the whiskey punch." 

"Agreed! agreed!" responded the crowd. 



152 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" No," said Leblond, " I must reserve the privi- 
lege of telling one joke at the Judge's expense." 

" And I shall insist upon the same right," re- 
marked Lahm. 

"I have one that is new," said another, " and 
has, probably, never been published. I can scarcely 
agree not to tell it." 

" Why, d — n it," said the Judge, quite petulently, 
"you intend to get my whiskey, I suppose, and 
then continue your annoyance ?" 

This produced quite a roar of laughter, and 
loud calls for the hot punch. 

Presently, the whiskey punch arrived, piping 
hot, and our professional gentlemen seized it with 
as much avidity as if it had been the elixir of life ? 
or the dissolved pearls of Cleopatra, while it sa- 
vored more of the hemlock of Socrates. 

" Well," said the Judge, with a pompous air, 
"this reminds us of olden times, when we traveled 
the circuit on horseback, and after reaching Court, 
through the mud and over swollen streams, we 
would try causes all day, and play cards and drink 
whiskey all night." 

" I know but little of the usages of other days," 
exclaimed Leblond, " but it reminds me forcibly of 
modern times and recent events." 

" Perhaps, after all," said the Judge, " there has 
not been so much change. The bar always drank 
too much." 

" How do vou account for that?" said Leblond. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. , 153 

" I account for it in this way," replied the Judge. 
" Lawyers frequently attend foreign Courts, where 
they not only meet their brethren of that particu- 
lar bar, but of distant bars, and often have but one 
or two causes, which are not reached upon the 
calendar for several days, and in the meantime, 
they are sauntering about town with time hanging 
heavily upon them ; while they are invited to drink 
often twenty times per day, and after having drank 
repeatedly and freely, it becomes their turn to treat, 
w T hich they must do or be thought penurious ; so 
the babit is formed unconsciously. We are terri- 
bly exposed ; terribly, gentlemen, terribly !" While 
he guzzled down his hot punch without seeming 
to know, or care, w T hat he was saying. 

" You, I am told, Judge, have heen able to play 
a strong game at old sledge, poker, &c. &c," said 
Lahm." 

" In my younger days," replied the Judge, ct I 
was hard to beat;" swelling to near twice his 
ordinary dimentions with pure, unmixed dignity. 

" Indeed ? I have understood you lost frequently, 
and in fact, ail you made for many of the first 
years of your professional life." 

"Do you intend to insult me sir ? " 

" Not at all," replied Lahm, " but common ru- 
mor says you were troubled with the shorts, about 
those times, from that and kindred causes." 

" I was most cursedly alarmed for Sibley a at one 



154 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

time during the progress of the trial," said the 
Sheriff. " It looked very much like conviction." 

" You did'nt understand it," saidAlban. " Why, 
do you suppose I would allow a man to be sent to 
the Penitentiary for stealing three cents' worth of 
liquor? No, sir ! I have too much sympathy for 
that class of men." 

" From the manner in which you lectured Sibley? 
I might add, insulted him ; I would readily suppose 
your bowels of compassion yearned over him ! 
But I would be glad to know by what authority you 
could interpose between a criminal and his fate, 
when his destiny was fixed beyond cavil, by the 
testimony and the well settled law of the land ? " 

" Well, sir," said the Judge ; while he seemed 
to be gathering the ermine around his inflated and 
polluted person ; " you would have had the pleas- 
ure of witnessing the authority by which I would 
have interposed between Sibley and his fate, had 
not your blunder saved me the necessity." 

"My blunder, as you term it, was innocent, hav- 
ing resulted from oversight ; but, had I averred 
Johnson the owner of the property, you could not 
have saved him, and regarded your official oath. 
You could have committed moral perjury, by a 
total disregard of that oath, and so you could in 
every cause tried at bar. But had the infamous 
Jeffreys attempted as flagrant an infraction of the 
law, and disregard of official duty, even the down- 
trodden people of that iron age, would not have 






THE UNJUST JUDGE. 155 



tolerated it. So far as principle and law are con- 
cerned, I can see no difference between your inter- 
posing code, and the code of Judge Lynch. You 
can run riot over law, justice, and equity; as you 
have the power, and frequently the will — and his 
Honor, Judge Lynch, can do no more." 

" There are many things you do not comprehend. 
You could not, or did not, see the importance of 
averring the warehouse to be the property of John- 
son. Your pitiful allusion to my perjury fell short 
of its mark; my feelings are proof against vulgar 
personalities. I will take care of the jury, and you 
too, when it shall become necessary." 

u Taking your history," said Lahm, " as the 
standard by which to judge, I would suppose you 
about as illy qualified to discharge the important 
duty of taking care of yourself, as any man in the 
community in which you have lived. And I would 
suggest to you the propriety of taking some care 
of public opinion, which, if I have properly inter- 
preted the signs of the times, will very soon give 
you ' fits.' You can have but little idea, I appre- 
hend, of the deep-toned thunder mutterings, every- 
where heard in disapproval, when you interposed 
between justice and the negro who commtited the 
outrage upon the young girl, below B. But I med- 
itated no assault upon your feelings. I am quite 
too well acquainted with the obtuseness of your 
sensibility, to attempt anything of the kind. There 



156 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

are some men whose feelings can only be reached 
by pounding their fingers with a hammer," 

The Judge was a large corpulent man, and slow 
in action, as well as in speech ; but was leisurely 
gathering himself up for the rencounter. When 
Lahm, rising to his feet and assuming a belligerent 
attitude, said : " Permit me to say, sir, you are the 
greatest judicial tyrant that ever disgraced the 
bench in ancient or modern times. Lord Jeffreys 
not accepted." 

Before our worthy Prosecutor had closed his 
bitter sarcasm, Judge Alban had thrown aside the 
ermine in a heap, with no inconsiderable amount 
of his assumed dignity, if he had not done it be- 
fore, and was upon his feet in a fighting posture, 
ready for a fisticuff. And had not an ex- Judge, 
who happened to be present, interposed, it would 
have terminated in more than a war of words. 

Here, the Sheriff proposed an amicable adjust- 
ment of all differences, over an additional bowl of 
hot whiskey-punch, at his expense. The Judge 
and Prosecutor swaggering assent. 

Leblond insisted that Alban and Lahm should 
shake hands, and go through the ridiculous farce 
of drinking each other's health from the same 
flask, which he drew from his pocket filled with a 
choice article of brandy, as a condition precedent 
to bringing forward the punch. Lahm took the 
bottle, and before drinking, said : " Here is hoping 
the Judge, in future, will hold the scales of justice 



' •■> 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 157 

with an even hand, and be an honor to the bench." 
But added, — in an under tone, distinctly heard by 
Alban, and all present — " he '11 have to change 
like h — 11, if he do," — immediately drank, and hand- 
ed the bottle- to Judge Alban ; who took it, and af- 
ter holding it up and looking at it a moment, said: 
" Here is regretting that you are what you are, but 
hoping for & reformation is hoping against possi- 
bilities." 

" Now," exclaimed the crowd, as with one voice, 
" for the punch, for the punch ! — punch ! punch ! !" 
But the punch was a little tardy, which was unfor- 
tunate for Leblond's bottle, as it was called for, 
passed round, and emptied of its contents. 

At length, the new recruit of punch was on 
the tapis, and all in silence for sometime contin- 
ued to sip the nectar , when the stillness of the oc- 
casion was interrupted by Lahm remarking, that 
he had great difficulty in getting witnesses before 
the Grand Jury, at the recent term of the Court, 
and"— 

" Well, and wh- what of it ?" hiccoughed Judge 
Alban, breaking in upon Lahm's unfinished sen- 
tence. 

" Nothing," replied Lahm, " except that I intend 
the censure and responsibility of this thing, shall 
rest where it properly belongs. I am followed up 
and chased down by temperance men, and my 
path beset on every side, by grocery influence. I 
am damned if I do, and damned if I don't ; and 



158 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

now, I'm damned if odium for keeping witnesses 
away from the Grand Jury, shall not lie at the 
door of somebody. I used every effort in my power 
to have John Smith, Abner Jay, and others, sub- 
poenaed before the Grand Jury, but failed. I even 
went so far as to procure an attachment, which 
the Court reluctantly granted, but that attachment 
was never served ; and I very much suspect it is 
still in the hat of Mr. Sheriff, if he has not de- 
stroyed it. 

"This thing is all wrong, and the people are in- 
quiring into the " whys and wherefores," and are 
not satisfied short of a direct and positive answer, 
and I am resolved to give it — criminate w T hom it 
may. Drunkenness is decimating the land, and 
fearfully increasing our taxes, and the better por- 
tion of community are waking up to their true in- 
terests upon this subject. Why is liquor sold by 
every grocer, merchant, and tavern, in our town 
and county, in violation of law, and in defiance of 
law, is a question th.at must be answerd ; and all 
I have to say at present is, " stand from under,'* I 
am conscious of having done my duty." 

" You will play the d — 1, and smash things," 
said the Sheriff. 

" I shall let the facts be known," retorted Lahm, 
" and if they shall ' smash' the prospects of some 
of your drunken deputies, and nip their hopes of 
promotion to the Sheriffalty, you must blame it 
upon their failure to discharge their duty." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 159 

" Would it not be well for you," said Alban, "to 
wait until you get sober before you commence lec- 
turing on temperance ? It is silly nonsense for you 
to assume so saintly a position. We all know 
you, and your habits ; and that you have derived 
as much political aid from winking at that sin, and 
dancing attendance upon the liquor influence, as 
any man among us. You cannot deny, sir, that 
you are indebted, for the official position you now 
occupy, to the weighty argument, among the 
drunken rabble, that you could carry more liquor 
without a jug, than any of your competitors. 
You were elected through that influence, and you 
are now either hypocritical or parricidious." 

" Well," said Lahm, " I have the merit, at least, 
of being on but one side at the same time. While 
I have been for, or against the liquor traffic, and 
have never occupied dubious ground ; you have 
not only been constantly upjon the fence, but al- 
ternately, upon both sides of it at the same time. 
You dare not deny, sir, that you have delivered 
temperance speeches during the day, to the Grand 
Jury, in which you have said, the man who sold 
his neighbor liquor and made him drunk, was 
worse than if he had stolen his property; and 
through the night following, gamble and become 
as drunk as Bacchus, and scarcely able to reach 
home, in the morning, without assistance. Yet, 
with all these irregularities, when upon the bench, 
you assume a dignity that would repel even the 



160- THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Autocrat of the Russias"; and then, how pure, 
moral, just, and impartial — a finished professor of 
eithics as well as law — yet the ample folds of er- 
mine is insufficient to conceal the tyrant, particu- 
larly after a night of debauchery." 

" You must not disgrace us by a fight and a 
row here," stammered Leblond, as he staggered 
between the belligerents. " Bring us a mint ju-ju- 
julip." 

Judge Alban, pleased with the prospect of more 
liquor, remarked, it has been said, ' music hath 
charms to soothe a savage' — though he repelled 
the idea that they were savages, yet he thought it 
might have a beneficial influence upon their angry, 
turbulent passions, and make them in love with 
all about them ; and that he would, therefore, give 
them a specimen of his Scotch music ; and he, ac- 
cordingly, went oft' into one of those happy moods 
which always indicates the amount of canvass he 
had flung to the breeze. 

" Judge, 5 ' said Leblond, " you are of Scotch ex- 
traction, I think I have understood ?" 

" Yes," answered Alban, as he swelled like the 
toad in the fable : " I am a lineal descendent from 
that noble, noble woman — ' Mary, Queen of 
Scots ! ' " 

" A descendent of kings, eh ? " retorted Lahm. 

" Yes," replied Alban, " more — of Queens." 

" Ye gods ! " said Lahm: " How the blood has 
degenerated ! " 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 161 

u What a glorious woraan was that Mary Stu- 
art ! Never has this terrestial ball produced her 
equal, always excepting that other Mary — the 
blessed virgin, " — remarked Alban, withoutrseem- 
ing to have noticed Lahm. 

li Ah, but Judge," said Lahm, " you should bear 
in mind, in these days of Democracy, 'tis — 

** Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow." 
****** 
" Go ! if your ancient but ignoble blood, 
Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood. 
Go ! and pretend your family is young ! 
Nor own yourfatheis have been fools so long ! 
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards ? 
Alas ! not all the blood of all the Stewarts." 

What is the benefit, when our appearance as well 
as our actions, stamp us every inch a plebian ? 
'Tis silly ; oh, it is ludicrous, in this plain republi- 
can country,. to attempt to borrow importance from 
the nobility of a fictitious ancestry. 

'•'Virtue, alone, is true nobility" 

True worth and u modest merit " never take airs 
and assume dignity because of the pecuniary, or 
intellectual, distinction of ancestry; and where 
that spirit is manifested, it can with entire confi- 
dence be regarded as evidence, conclusive that 
their fathers belonged to the vulgar herd, and not 
to the patrician order. This royal blood," contin- 
ued Lahm, addressing Leblond, " accounts for Al- 

ban's despotism and petty tyranny over the young- 
11 



162 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

er members of the bar. It often shows itself, though 
far very far removed from the parent stock." 

Alban was in a position, anything but pleasant, 
yet his folly— his weakness — had invoked it, and 
hence he had to submit as best he could. 

The Judge was a man of fair intellect, and in 
early life, w 7 as possessed of generous and manly 
impulses; but in consequence of domestic vexa- 
tion, and political disappointment, his temper had 
become soured, and it occasionally appeared to 
carry a secret joy to his heart to be able to vent 
his spleen upon some unfortunate individual com- 
pletely in his pow r er. He never was known to at- 
tack any person, unless he was protected by his 
privilege as Attorney or Judge, from reply; and 
his refined and elevated pleasures were drawn 
from the pain he inflicted upon others, and the 
more excruciating, the more extatic his enjoyment. 

Lawyers, from some cause not yet understood 
—probably from habit — have a practice of getting 
their feet upon a table, stove, or any thing that 
may chance to be in their neighborhood more ele- 
vated than the seat upon which they are, at 
the time, sitting. This practice the Judge re- 
garded as not strictly Chesterfieldian, and there- 
fore, attempted to break up the habit, which afford- 
ed one of the most laughable, not to say ludicrous 
scenes, we ever remember to have witnessed. It 
reminded us of an old-fashioned Irish pedagogue, 
hectoring his half frightened urchins. While de- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 163 

livering an opinion in an important case he would 
stop and exclaim, " your feet off the table, sir ! " 
Down went the feet, but in the course of a few 
minutes, some member who had been engaged due- 
ling the previous reprimand, would throw himself 
back into his chair, and up would go his feet upon 
the counsel table ; then, the Court would come 
down upon him, with " Your feet off the table, sir !" 
He loved to indulge, when partially intoxicated, in 
vital stabs at private character^ by dark insinua- 
tions and meaning glances, but lacked the manli- 
ness and courage for an open and direct attack; 
and thus was he engaged, frequently, in under- 
mining, insidiously, the character and standing of 
certain members of the bar. 

His Honor possessed another imperfection, in 
common with the rest of the human race. While 
all men love that delicious aliment called flattery, 
Judge Alban had this rascally virtue in a most pre- 
eminent degree. It may be said, with truth, that 
the entire Adamic race are fond of flattery, and that 
the only difference between men consists in this, 
that while you must serve it up exceedingly delicate 
for some, you can pitch it down the throats of oth- 
ers with a barn-floor shovel ; and to the latter class 
belonged the Judge. The coarser the article the 
more agreeable to his taste. This frailty of his 
honor was the only avenue through which he could 
be approached with any tolerable degree of 
e^se, 

11* 



1G4 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

i; 0f praise a mere glutton, he swallowed what came, 
And the puff of a dunce, he mistook it for fame, 
Till his relish grew callous almost to disease ; 
"Who peppered the highest was surest to please." 

The acumen of the bar, in different portions of 
the circuit, was not slow to discover this weakness 
of the Judge ; and hence, it was not uncommon to 
hear, on the trial of unimportant as well as the 
most important causes, the grossest flattery filing 
in the face of his honor, for the purpose of secur- 
ing his favor and carrying a point. That which 
would have called up ablush on the cheek of mod- 
esty, was gulped down with greediness by Alban, 
and regarded as more weighty than powerful logic, 
consecutive argument, or even indisputable author- 
ities. 

The Judge had, in every county of his district, 
one or two favorites ; generally the more unscru- 
pulous, who followed him in his midnight revelries, 
took possession of his heart, controlled his judg- 
ment and ruled his decisions. 

t: Many wiles had they, and many modes of catching, 
But every trap was selfishness, and every bait was praise. '' 

These he would permit to be out of order accord- 
ing to their freaks and whims, while the remain- 
der of the bar were watched with Argus eyes, and 
their causes frequently sacrificed; and when com- 
pelled to carry their causes into a higher court in 
order to obtain justice, Judge Alban would often 
follow them and manifest all the anxiety to sustain 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 165 

his ruling below, which usually characterizes young 
advocates of zealous, sanguine temperaments, with 
an eye single to success, without reference to jus- 
tice or equity. 

He was occasionally told, by a friend, that the 
unbridled passion tow T hich he was sacrificing honor, 
principle, justice, and friends, would destroy him ; 
yet he chose darkness rather than light; probably 
iii imitation of his pretended ancestry, as Gold- 
smith, in his history of Englaud, tells us that the 
house of Stuarts were proverbial for their treach- 
ery to friends and patrons in extremities. 






CHAPTER XIV. 

Like mighty rivers, with resistless force 

The passions rage, obstructed in their course*, 

Swell to new heights, forbidden paths explore, 

And drown those virtues which they fed before --Fope. 

" Have you heard the difficulty into which A. P. 
Jewett has got himself?" said a sprightly young 
lawyer to judge Jones as he drove up to the door 
of a hotel, in one of the western villages of the 
State. 

"No," quickly replied Jones, " what difficulty, 
pray, has he got into ? " 

" So, you have heard nothing about it ?" 

w No, certainly not," said the Judge, impatient 
to learn the character of Jewett' s trouble. 

w Then," said his informant, " you had better go 
immediately to the jail and learn the facts from 
himself." 

"Jewett in jail!" exclaimed Judge Jones. — 
" What, upon earth, does all this mean ? " 

" Certainty, he is," replied the young man. 

The Judge, without further delay, repaired to the 
jail, and found Jewett in prison, and learned from 
him the cause of his " capture and detention." 

Jewett, for several weeks had been perambula- 
ting the State, electioneering for Judge Jones ; and 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 167 

in his travels, he came in contact with those of the 
Judge's opponents who were circulating against 
him the charge of his intemperance, as well as 
thos^e who were repelling the charge ; and among 
the latter he found, or imagined he found it ne- 
cessary to take an occasional dram ; and being 
unaccostomed to drinking, it produced the impres- 
sion, where he was unknown, that he himself w r as 
addicted to intemperance. 

But, as the Judge and Jewett are now together, 
Jewett must be permitted to give his own account 
of the matter.. 

"Why, what in heaven's name are you doing 
here ? enquired Jones. 

" Well, Judge,' 5 said Jewett, " I am truly glad 
to see you, whether I have gotten into trouble re- 
mains to be seen." 

u But," exclaimed the Judge, " how 7 , and by w r hat 
possible means did they get you into prison ? " 

" In passing through the State," said Jewett,. "1 
occasionally find it necessajy to get up the impres- 
sion that you are persecuted — that the temperance 
organizations are bringing all their appliances to 
bear upon you. That they have singled you out 
from among a host of candidates with a view of 
striking down your character and prostrating you 
forever. And for the purpose of showing my con- 
tempt for the ethics of that school of politicians, 
— for they are nothing more nor less than politi- 
cians — I have indulged a little in the " critter ;" 



168 THE UNJUST JUBGX, 

and up North, some fourteen miles, while pretty 
well " fuddled," Tom Harris came along and 
charged me with being drunk, and added that it, 
was very appropriate for one drunken loafer to 
electioneer for another. Thereupon, while under 
the influence of a violent fit of passion. I immedi- 
ately wrote him to meet me at such time and place, 
and wdth such weapons as he might designate, and 
I would chastise him for his insolence ; and incred- 
ible as it may appear, the cowardly puppy, instead 
of accepting the challenge, immediately filed his 
affidavit, and I was required to enter into a recogn- 
izance of tw r o thousand dollars, and in default, to 
be committed to jail. Being wholly unacquainted 
in this section of the State, I. of course, could not 
give the required bail ; hence, your honor finds me 
in jail, not quite as calm as a May morning. Had 
I kept myself perfectly sober, as I ought to have 
done, this terrible disgrace would not have hap- 
pened to me." 

" I have no distinct recollection of the precise 
character of the challenge, as I was both angry 
and intoxicated w T hen I penned it ; and at the time 
of my arrest and commitment, I was still under 
the influence of liquor; so I was incapable of fully 
knowing and appreciating what was transpiring 
around me ; but I have no doubt it comes within 
the purview of the statute ; and, from the cowardly 
and malignat feeling Harris has manifested, he 
will cary this criminal proceeding a fearful length. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 169 

Can I escape conviction ? I must confess I am 
greatly alarmed, and can see no hope if it shall 
be prosecuted. I would be unwilling to derive 
any benefit from the plea of drunkenness, even if 
it were available. I will never attempt to shield 
myself from the consequences of one crime, by 
taking shelter under another. I would as soon go 
to the Penitentiary as urge my incapacity to com- 
mit crime from drunkenness." 

11 You have, really, got into serious trouble. It 
is most unfortunate. I know that Harris is a most 
unprincipled villain," continued Judge Jones, "and 
have frequently wondered how such a creature, — ■> 
"fit "for treason, stratagem, and spoils," got in- 
to the profession he so shamefully digraces. He, 
as well as the scamp who certified for him at the 
time of his admission, ought to be thrown over the 
bar for want of integrity and moral worth." 

" Judge," said Jewett, " our wonder at the ad- 
mission of such men into an honorable and liberal 
profession, abates when we recollect that a Judas 
was in the cabinet of the Saviour of the World." 

" While you were narrating the facts of your 
case," said Judge Jones, " I was trying to con- 
ceive of a defence, and have been entirely unable 
to satisfy myself with any you can interpose with 
safety, and have finally determined the case must 
never come to trial." 

" How is it to be avoided?" inquired Jewett. 

"Everyman has his price, 5 ' replied the Judge. 



170 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Harris must be bought off. That challenge must 
be destroyed, and the prosecution suppressed, 
That is your only salvation." 

"In making that arrangement, Judge," said 
Jewett, " you must take into the account the fact* 
that fortune has never smiled propitiously upon 
your humble servant, except by furnishing him 
with a very liberal share of baby responsibilities, 
which in a negotiation, such as you speak of, 
would not be 'a present help in time of need.'" 

" You must be cut loose from this dilema, cost 
what it may. And, of course, it would neither 
be manly nor honest in me to let you pay the pen- 
alty of my dereliction to duty. That I must be 
permitted to settle," continued Jones, " entirely 
myself as a part of the punishment due on the old 
score of getting drunk on the Hamlin trial." 

"But, Judge," said Jewett, "this expenditure 
which you are now contemplating, would not, and 
could not have been required, had I maintained 
the character due my position on the temperance 
question ; and, therefore, I ought, at least, to be 
allowed to divide the expense with you." 

" Not at all, sir ! " instantly replied Judge Jones. 
" You are not to make any additional sacrifice — 
no more immolations upon the altar of my folly. 
Had I maintained the character due the position I 
occupied, you would not have been called upon to 
sacrifice principle, and could not upon my account, 
have been placed in a condition where you were 



THE UK JUST JUDGE. ltl 

liable to temptation or trouble. I will open a cor- 
respondence ; or rather, will cause a correspon- 
dence to be opened with Harris in the course of a 
few days, upon this subject, and in the meantime 
I will allow a writ of Habeas Corpus, and have 
you taken out of this infernal hole, and let to bail" 

The Judge returned to the hotel, and after par- 
taking of some refreshments drew up the applica- 
tion for the allowance of the writ ; carried it to the 
jail and procured the signature of Jewett ; allowed 
the writ to issue ; and, in a very short period, Jew- 
ett was before Judge Jones, on a writ of Habeas 
Corpus, and admitted to bail in the nominal sum 
of one hundred dollars, for which Jones became 
personally responsible to the individual who bailed 
Jewett. 

" Judge," enquired Jewett, " would it not have 
been better to have put the bail bond at least one 
thousand dollars ? The magistrate's bond was 
two thousand, and I very much fear your enemies 
will manufacture some capital against you out of 
the fact, that you have let me to bail upon a mere 
nominal sum. I would regret it exceedingly, if 
they used it to your disadvantage. If it happen 
to occur to them, they will use it against you as 
certainly, and to some purpose, too, as that you 
are a candidate." 

" Mr. Jewett, I will be elected; of that I enter- 
tain not a doubt. I have surveyed the entire field, 
and defeat is impossible. They will slander and 



172 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

traduce me ; and, perhaps, impair my influence 
and ability to be useful, but I will triumph ; and 
hence I disregard their malignity. 5 ' 

" The object," continued the Judge, "in putting 
your bond so low, I supposed was apparent to you. 
In case we shall find ourselves unable to reach 
Harris, and should be compelled to forfeit your bond, 
one hundred dollars is a little matter, and will 
bankrupt nobody.*' 

" That is all true, Judge, but it is yet some time 
before the election comes ofF; and with our tele- 
graph and rail road facilities, this thing may be 
heralded all over the State, and its effects may be 
wonderful — far beyond what you anticipate. And 
then, you are aware, appearences are often decep- 
tive. You may be deceived as to your prospects: 
but admitting that if the election were to go off. 
to-day, your success would be certain, that is real- 
ly no evidence that you would not be defeated, 
three weeks hence, by many hundred votes. — 
Changes often take place in the course of a very 
few days, in a great State like this, casting more 
than three hundred thousand votes, varying the re- 
sult most essentially."' 

" I cannot be deceived as to one fact; and that 
is, that the sympathies of those who drink liquor, 
both moderately and immoderately, are enlistedin 
my favor. Their name is legion. You will find, 
sir, they will come up to the ballot box, from hill 
top and valley, Hamlet and village, town and city 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 173 

- — all over the State, and deposite .their votes for 
me without distinction of party." 

" You are more of a politicion then I, yet, I fear 
you are calculating without your host; and," con- 
tinued Jewett, "the class of voters, upon which you 
are relying, often constitute a kind of floating vote, 
and frequently take a "stampede," and there is no 
controlling them. 

" This very circumstance, if hand-billed over the 
State, might have the effect to create the " stam- 
pede," and defeat your election." 

Our two friends had now reached the Judge's 
room. 

Jones rang for the servant, and ordered two bran- 
dy slings ; then turning to Jewett remarked that 
he had made up his mind to break off entirely, and 
never again taste liquor after the campaign closed. 
He went on to say, he had been drinking for many 
years, and during all that period he had not got 
kito any trouble, nor had he been sick, or met 
with any misfortune, that he could not, upon re- 
flection, trace directly, or indirectly, to his indis- 
cretions in the use of alcoholic drinks. 

" I," said Jewett, "have had but little personal 
experience in the use of liquors, but from that lit- 
tle, I am inclined to think its use more than a 
Pandora's box — that it is the source of universal 
evil." 

" What a happy world it would be, if, by some 



174 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

magic wand, spirituous liquor could be stricken out 
of existence." 

" Intemperance, like the fearful siroc's blast, 
spreads in its course, ruin, devastation, desolation, 
and death. The brightest human interests, and 
the fairest prospects of imperishable fame, are 
nipped in the bud ; and even the sanctity of our 
hopes beyond the tomb are invaded by this fell 
distroyer." 

" Notwithstanding I have been guilty of very 
many follies, to use the mildest possible term for 
it," said Jones, "while under the influence of liquor, 
yet I cannot say I now or ever loved the taste of 
spirituous, or malt liquors, of any description. — 
Nor can I say that the exhilerating or exciting ef- 
fects produced by it, so very pleasent to some, has 
even been agreeable to me. 

" My drinking has been on account of irresolu- 
tion — want of decision — because I have never 
learned to pronounce the little monosyllable "no." 
The most important word in the English language, 
and yet the most difficult to pronounce." 

The brandy now before them, they drank with 
apparent relish; and why? We have just heard 
from Judge Jones that he had neither a natural nor 
acquired fondness for it, and we are bound to sup- 
pose the same of Jew T ett,for many reasons. Then, 
why this constant sip, sip — drink, drink, drink — 
without inclination ; without relish ; without pur- 



TUB UNJUST JUDGE. 175 

pose — plunging them into difficulty every day — 
occasionally involving the lose of reputation, lib- 
erty, and all that men usually hold dear on earth? 
And yet, they sip and drink, and drink and sip, un- 
til all is gone, and they are on the verge of utter 
ruin. What inexplicable infatuation ! What mad- 
ness rules the hour ! ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

Woman, lovely woman ! Nature made thee 

To temper man; we had been brutes without thee. 

Otway. 

"I have always maintained, Mr. Tompkins, 
that moral suasion was the remedy, and the only 
remedy, in this enlightened age, and country of 
freedom of thought and action, for the correction of 
certain vices : and prominent among them, was 
intemperance ; " but, a change has come o'er the 
spirit of my dream.' " 

" Ah, indeed ! May I inquire, what has been the 
character of that change ? Well, I trust that it is 
not about to spoil a good wife and make a poor 
politician," replied Tompkins, to a dignified and 
highly cultivated lady, about the meridian of life, 
who had the honor of calling him her lord and 
master. 

" No sir," said Mrs. Tompkins. "I shall at all 
times endeavor to take care of these little responsi- 
bilities of ours, and see that your meals are pre- 
pared in order and in season, and that other house- 
hold duties are properly attended to ; and yet I 
hope to have the privilege of expressing my opin- 
ions upon great moral questions involving the hap- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 177 

piness, here and hereafter, of millions of human 
souls. " 

" But, my dear, you have still left me in the dark, 
as to the nature of the change of which you have 
spoken. You must not assume the character of 
a " strong minded woman 1 ' and aspire to the ele- 
vated position of a leader in the affairs of State. 
That would be thwarting nature, and when nature 
is perverted, disorder ensues." 

" You must not, my dear husband, expect to 
evade the discussion of the temperance question, 
by attempting to get up an issue with me as to the 
rights of women. I have no discussion with you 
as to woman's right, or ability to rule and govern 
the State, at this time. If agreeable to you, upon 
some future occasion, you can have my views upon 
that subject." 

" But for the l change that has come o'er the 
spirit of your dream,' upon the temperance ques- 
tion. If that must be discussed, let us get at it im- 
mediately. It will not, probably, occupy but a few 
minutes;" somewhat tartly responded Tompkins. 

" To come directly to the point, then, Mr. Tomp- 
kins, I am no longer in favor of moral suasion for 
the restraint of intemperance. Its mission and 
purpose has been fulfilled. It has spent its force, 
and it has done much. To refuse to go further is 
to retrograde in this great moral enterprise. It k? 

12 



178 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

not ia the nature of reformations to be stationary. 
I am, therefore, in favor of legal suasion. And, 
by the time legal suasion has spent its force and 
closed its mission, the greatest emissary his satanic 
majesty ever commissioned and sent forth to ruin 
and destroy, will have breathed his expiring groan." 

" Why, that is quite a speech," said Tompkins. 

"Well, my dear, you "make quite a speech," 
and I will make another. I have enlisted for life 
in this cause," replied Mrs. Tompkins. 

" You reason correctly from your promises, but 
are they correct ? Is it true that moral suasion 
has spent its force? " 

" I aver, most solemnly, that I believe it has spent 
all the force it possessed in shaping the views and 
sentiments of that portion of society, willing to 
listen to the voice of reason, which 1 am happy to 
say, constitutes a large and decided majority in 
this, and indeed, in all other countries where wis- 
dom and virtue are predominent among the 
masses. That portion of our citizens who are 
deaf to the voice of reason, and who from avarice, 
or some baser passion, are unwilling to desist from 
their traffic in spirituous liquors, notwithstanding 
the moral death that follows as connectedly as ef- 
fect follows cause ; must be restrained by the strong 
arm of the law. Treat such men as enemies of 
the public peace and welfare. Public policy re- 
quires it. The good of community requires it — 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 179 

The welfare and happiness — temporal and eter- 
nal — of unborn millions demand it. 

" So, there, Mr. Tompkins, is another speech 
for you ; and as you have not answered the first, 
if you decline answering this also, I will make 
still another." 

" May I inquire, when you experienced this 
change, my dear?" said Tompkins, with more 
sangfroid, than suited the pride of his better part. 

" I first began to view this subject in the light 
in which I now look at it, some ten days since, 
when I happened to be at our neighbor Dudley's, 
across the way. He had carried every thing out 
of the house that would purchase a glass of liquor 
for him; and finally, just before I dropped in, he 
had taken a small pocket-Bible he had presented 
her before she wore his dishonorable name, and 
sold it to the grocery-keeper for two shillings worth 
of liquor, and was then lying in the back yard, 
under a shed, so drunk that he could neither sit nor 
stand ; and that at the cost of the only Bible in the 
house; while poor Mrs. Dudley was overwhelmed 
with grief at the loss of it. What ^dark picture is 
spread out before her; and 1 , how slight the hope that 
her condition will assume a more favorable phase ! 

" Now, please tell me," continued Mrs. Tomp- 
kins, " how long you might preach faith and re- 
pentance to two such degraded specimens of hu- 
manity, as Dudley and the wretch to whom he 
sold the Bible." 



180 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

"I will concede," said Tompkins, "that preaching-, 
in the case you put, would be a little like casting 
pearls before swine. 

" How are they to be reached? There are but 
two ways — persuasion and law — by which they can 
be reached ; if the former is not effectual, resort 
must be had to the latter. Humanity, to say noth- 
ing of Christianity, forbids that one citizen should 
be permitted to murder another; slowly, it is true, 
but certainly." 

i; He does it with the consent of the injured man," 
said Tompkins, in an under and rather subdued 
tone. 

" With the consent of the injured, eh? The 
man who takes advantage of the minor, or an in- 
sane person, invariably does it with the consent of 
the injured ; yet the law, I believe, steps in and 
says, these injured individuals are incapable of 
giving their consent, and compels the dishonest 
man to disgorge his ill-gotten gain. The man who 
meets you upon the highway, and with a pistol a,t 
your breast, demands your money, gets it with 
your consent. You choose between two evils and 
surrender the money in preference to surrendering 
your life. You will insist, that in the last case 
put, the man was under duress. Who, we inquire, 
is more effectually under duress, than the unfortu- 
nate man who is a slave to his passions — impris- 
oned by a depraved and vitiated appetite ? He is 
as much entitled to the protection of the law as 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 181 

tlie minor, the lunatic, or the man met upon the 
highway. 

" Now do tell me whether the country is not full 
of such cases ? And whether they are not as far 
beyond the reach of public opinion, as the men 
who will steal or rob ? In either case, you can 
alone reach them by heavy penal enactments." 

"Well, that makes four speeches, and if I do 
not soon make one, you will imagine they are un- 
answerable. What have you to say to the hun- 
dreds and hundreds of men, in different parts of 
the State, who have all they possess in the world, 
invested in liquors ? Must they pour out their sub- 
stance, and be reduced to penury and want ?" 

" There is this view to be taken of that state of 
things. The men who invest their means in the 
business of dealing in liquors, are in no worse 
condition than the man who throws a dam across 
a stream of water, below which he constructs a val- 
uable mill and machinery — produces stagnation, 
and thereby generates malaria, causing disease 
and death. In the latter case, the strong arm of 
the law would abate the nuisance, without refer- 
ence to the amount invested in the erection of the 
structure and machinery ; or the consequences to 
the foolish individual who had expended his all in its 
construction. 

" If you possess sufficient acumen to draw a dis- 
tinction between these two different orders of nui- 
sances, and tell me why one should be abated and 



182 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

the other tolerated, I will yield the point and an- 
noy you no further upon the subject. For then I 
shall distrust my powers of conception and ability 
to think, and console myself with the reflction that 
I may be all wrong. 

" Now, Edwin, do promise me, that when you 
return to your seat in the Senate, you will advocate 
and defend the "Maine Law," with all the power 
you possess ; and I will venture the prediction you 
will live to thank God that you took a bold and 
fearless stand for virtue and temperance." 

" Mary, < almost thou persuadest me to be a 
Christian. 5 But," continued Edwin Tompkins, "do 
you recollect the very remarkable language of a 
distinguished General, who, at the head of a vic- 
torious army, was marching upon his native city, 
when met by his wife and mother, who implored 
him to save the effusion of blood?" 

" Oh, yes," said Mrs. Tompkins. " I recollect he 
said to his mother, she had saved Rome but sacri- 
ficed her son. But you do not wish to be under- 
stood as intimating that your advocacy of the 
1 Maine law' would impair your influence as a cit- 
izen or politician ? " 

" It would destroy my political prospects for all 
time to come," said Tompkins. 

" If to be honest — to follow the dictates of a ma- 
tured judgment — the approval of an enlightened 
conscience; to do the very thing for which you 
were elected — to look after and promote the pub- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 183 

lie interest ; if to do all this is to destroy your po- 
litical hopes ; and if, to fling conscience to the 
winds — disregard public welfare, except so far as 
it tends to your own advancement, is to enhance 
your political prospects and make you a favorite 
with the people ; can you, as an honest man and 
a good citizen, hesitate as to your course ? 

x: *Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great : 
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave ; 
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. 
Who noble ends by noble means obtains, 
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains; 
Like good Aurelius, let him reign or bleed ; 
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed." 

" Edwin, can you, whom I have ever regarded 
as a paragon of every excellence, turn your back 
upon duty, which ought to be paramount in all 
conditions in life? I could not have been made 
to believe that there was, in your composition, one 
particle of the dross of selfishness ; and would 
have repelled it as a base slander, had you been 
charged with it ; and yet, my dear, you must in- 
dulge me while I say, to be deterred from the dis- 
charge of a known duty through fear of invoking 
the. displeasure of the rabble, is the very sublimate 
of the most sorded selfishness. But, with all due 
deference to your better judgment, political saga city 
and foresight ; let me add, the moral sun is gild- 
ing the eastern horizon, soon to be in the ascend- 
ant — soon to wilt, wither, scorch — and, in its on- 
ward and upward progress, to consume and burn 



184 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

up every opposing obstacle. Public sentiment, at 
this very moment, is undergoing a fermenta- 
tion, such as has not been witnessed since the 
dawn of civilization. The light, extraneous sub- 
stances will be thrown ofF, while the heavier will 
be deposited in the shape of sediment, and we 
shall have that which will remain, to wit : truth 
for public sentiment. 

In this noon of the nineteenth century, it can- 
not be that a man will make himself odious to the 
people by honestly, and faithfully discharging his 
duty to himself, his constituents, and to society 
generally. 

" But if this deplorable state of society does ex- 
ist, it only shows the greater importance and neces- 
sity of your throwing yourself, with the entire 
weight of your influence and character, into the 
opposite scale with the view of creating a more 
healthy public sentiment. 

" Good men must be found in the vanguard, in 
the progress and march of great moral reforma- 
tions. It cannot be expected that bad men, when 
their interest is at war with reform, should be found 
occupying prominent positions in the work of 
bringing about those reforms." 

"But," interrupted Tompkins, "what account 
am I to render to this grocery-keeper w T ho bought 
the bible of Dudley, and scores of other kindred 
spirits, who have hitherto been among my warmest 
political friends ; and in every time of need, would 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 185 

come to my assistance ? Would it not be ingrati- 
tude, upon my part, to espouse the Maine Law ? 
Ingratitude is a black offence ; and of so heinous 
a character is it, that anciently, and that by bar- 
barians, too, it was ranked among, and punished 
as, a capital crime. 

"And in addition to all that ; they would turn 
upon me with the fiercness of a bear in defence of 
her cubs." 

" They ought not to become your enemies be- 
cause you tell them the truth. A great and good 
man has said, ' our best friends are those who tell 
us our faults, and teach us how to correct them." ' 

" Yes," interrupted Tompkins, " but these fellows 
are not philosophers." 

"Admitted," immediately replied Mrs. Tompkins; 
" but are- they likely to become philosophers, while 
you, and others laying claims to philosophy, con- 
tinue to cater to their follies and vices ?*' 

" But, should they turn upon you, with all the fury 
you anticipate, the better portion of community 
will immediately come to your relief, and more 
than compensate for your loss." 

"I must confess," said Tompkins, "you possess 
more knowledge of human nature than I had sup- 
posed ; and, while I have been observing men 
closely, you have not been indifferent to what was 
transpiring around you. Yet I am unwilling, at 
this time, to espouse the "Maine Law. 

"I am sorry," said Mrs. Tompkins, "you cannot 



186 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

realize that duty requires you to act fearlessly on 
this question. 

"I see the right, and approve it too ; 

Condemn the wrong, but yet the wrong pursue" — : 

is not the position for a man of your stamp to oc- 
cupy ; and yet, there is where you stand." 

Tompkins broke in by remarking, that he had 
been thinking upon the subject of temperance, and 
approved of the movement ; but could scarcely 
think the time for action, in that direction, had yet 
arrived; that it would come, and come soon, he 
entertained no doubt. 

"No my dear, this ' is the accepted time ; this is 
the day of salvation.' It is always right, to do 
right; and the present and not a future period, is 
the time to do right : 

"What conscience dictates to he done, 
Or warns me not to do ; 
This, teach me more than hell to shun — 
That, more than heaven pursue." 

Do let me urge you to be true to yourself, and 
those with whom you are connected in the various 
relations of life. 

" What, I inquire, induces you to seek high po- 
litical position ? It is not that your name may be, 
occasionally, favourably mentioned in the public 
prints, or for other less potent reasons ; but that 
the public may have the benefit of your experi- 
ence, your wisdom, and knowledge. In short, you 
ascend ambition's ladder in order that your elevated 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 187 

and commanding position may enable you to do 
good. Then, if you are not on virtue's side, you 
must be upon the side of vice. 'You cannot serve 
God and mammon; and in the event of an effort 
to occupy that position you will not have attain- 
ed the object of your ambition." 

At this moment, the mail-boy entered and handed 
Tompkins a package of letters, one of which he 
broke open, and read as follows : 

" Edwin Tompkins, Esq : 

Sir: — Though I have not the pleasure of a 
personal acquaintance with you, I have taken the 
liberty of addressing you, as well as a few of the 
more prominent of your brethren of the State 
Senate, upon a subject involving more of my in- 
terest than all others, saving and excepting my 
salvation beyond the grave. 

" Could I invoke the aid of yourself, and four or 
five other Senators to whom I have written, in fa- 
vor of the i Maine Law,' it would, pass the Senate 
and, with the prestige of its passage in that body 
its fate in the House, cannot be doubtful — it would 
then immediately, become the law of the land. 
What an era in the history of our State ! 

" I am impelled to take this step, by the hope that 
it may be the means of saving my husband and 
two sons, from the yawning gulf, upon the margin 
of which they are now standing, apparently await- 
ing your action upon this momentous question. 



188 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Saved, if you but stretch forth your hand; but 
lost — forever lost to themselves, to me, to society 
— and, oh ! eternally lost beyond this vale of tears, 
if you but withhold that helping hand! 

u Your granting my request will not impoverish 
you, w T hile it will enrich thousands upon thousands, 
many of whom may live to laud your praises, long 
after the eloquent voice that saved them is hushed 
in death. 

"My dear husband and sons, from the force of 
a long and continuous habit, are so wedded to 
their cups they have lost all control over their 
wills, when exposed to temptation ; and my only 
hope now, is to place them beyond the reach of 
temptation, through the enactment of the Maine 
Law. If there was no liquor to lure them -from 
the path of virtue, peace and plenty would again 
shed their benign influence around our domestic 
hearth. 

" As you love the joy and comfort of your own 
home — as you love your wife and children — as you 
love your character and that of your family — as 
you value all you hold dear — as you estimate the 
glory in store for those who love and serve God, 
throw r yourself into the breach and save the joy 
and comfort of my home ; save my lost and ruined 
husband and children. Save their character, and 
save, oh! save them from the deep perdition that 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 189 

awaits the wine-bibber and the drunkard, after they 
shall have exchanged worlds. 

" A few more fleeting summers will pass over 
your head, and you; my husband and children ; all 
interested in the passage of this bill, w T ill stand to- 
gether before the bar of the great "Judge of the 
quick and the dead." It will then matter not to 
you, whether you had the approval or disapproval 
of the millions. It will then be a matter of little 
consequence whether you were in power, or out of 
it, on earth. But it will matter much to you, then, 
whether you — while on earth — was on the side of 
virtue, and contributed your utmost influence in 
■ checking the progress of vice. Should you be so 
happy as to meet a fe\Y happified souls around the 
Throne, whom you had snatched from, wretched- 
ness and woe, believe me — ' at that awful hour 
when you shall await the last inevitable verdict, 
the eye of your hope will not be the less bright, 
nor the agony of your ordeal the more acute, be- 
cause you shall have been instrumental in bruis- 
ing the head of the serpent intemperance, and 
crushing and crumbling, forever, the altar of its 
idolatry.' 

" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, and 
their works do follow them." 

" What more ought I to say? What more can 
I say? 

" The Maine Law will pass, but it may come too 
late to bring peace and comfort to my home." 



190 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

" Let me, in closing, again urge you, by all that 
is high on earth or holy in heaven, earnestly to ad- 
vocate this law. If this traffic is stopped, drunken- 
ness must stop from necessity, and misery, wretch- 
edness, and crime, lessen from the same cause. 
Enlist in it, and you have the prayers of thou- 
sands, while the curses of the drunkard will recoil 
in blessings upon his own head. 

I am, my dear sir, 

Very truly, 
JANE P. BELL." 

While reading the above letter, Tompkins se- 
cretly determined to use all honorable means in 
his power to procure the passage of the law, and 
let consequences take care of themselves. 

After he had read the letter, he handed it to his 
wife, who perused it attentively ; and, while fold- 
ing it, she looked her husband imploringly in the 
face, and said, " Mr. Tompkins, you will support 
the Temperance bill, won't you?" 

Tompkins admired the disinterested devotion 
his wife was giving this benevolent measure. She 
had actually changed his views upon this impor- 
tant subject; for which he had the manliness to 
give her the credit. 

" Mary," said Tompkins, " I have no doubt I can 
effect the passage of the Maine Liquor Law 
through the Senate. Different Senators are in 
doubt as to how they ought to vote upon this bill, 
and I have been satisfied I could control their votes, 






THE UNJUST JUDGE. 191 

which I had fully determined to do against the 
measure. 

" If the bill shall be passed, the State will be 
indebted to you," said Tompkins, "for one of the 
most important measures introduced for many 
years, though you may never receive the credit 
due you. I shall never fail, on all proper occa- 
sions, to mention to whom I am indebted for my 
change of sentiment." 

" God be praised ! " exclaimed Mrs. Tompkins, as 
the big tears fell thick and fast from her large, be- 
nevolent blue eyes. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

J Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 
A.nd ask them what report they've oorne to heaven, 
And how they might have borne more welcome news. 

Young. 

Sibley had now nearly finished the period for 
which he was consigned to prison, when, as soon 
as the outer door of the jail was opened, in the 
morning, one of his boys appeared at the door of 
his cell, and informed him that his little son which 
his brutality had exposed to the inclemency of the 
weather, was a corpse. 

Stung by remorse, and lashed by a guilty con- 
science, he raved for several successive hours like 
a maniac. Alternately praying God for mercy, 
and imprecating the vengeance of heaven upon 
the jailor, for not throwing open the door of the 
prison and allowing him to attend his child's funeral. 
He would prostrate himself upon the prison floor, 
and beseech the man in "brief authority," to let 
him out, if but for two hours ; and would pledge 
himself, by all that was sacred, to return to his 
confinement as soon as he had performed this last 
solemn duty to his departed infant. When all 
other arguments had failed, he proposed serving 
him for the period of five years, in the most menial 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 193 

capacity * if he would allow him to follow the re- 
mains of his child to its grave. 

But the Jailor, who had become callous-hearted^ 
and lost to the better feelings of. our nature, from 
habitual intemperance, remained inexorable; and 
poor Sibley, during the afternoon, was doomed to 
the mortification of seeing, through his iron-grated 
window, the funeral procession pass his prison. 

Sibley spent the few remaining days in prison, 
reviewing his past life ; and frequently did differ- 
ent members of his family, on visiting him, find 
him bathed in tears. 

" Acquaint thee with thyself, man! so shalt thou he humble. 
The hard, hot desert of thy heart shall blossom with the lilly and th€ 

rose ; 
The frozen cliffs of pride shall melt as an iceberg in the tropics ; 
The bitter fountains of self-seeking", be sweeter than the waters of the 

Nile/ 3 

From the retrospect, he discovered the indiscretion 
and the weakness that led him into folly, dissipa^ 
tion and crime, and resolved with all the firmness 
and resolution he had left, to avoid, in the future, 
folly and dissipation by guarding against their pio- 
neer, indiscretion. 

As soon as his liberty was restored, he returned 
to his family, believing himself a changed man, 
and was so regarded by his friends and neighbors: 
and after the lapse of a few days opened an office 
and vigorously entered upon the duties of his pro- 
fession. Business began to flow in upon him, and 

he found men of influence and position in society 
13 



194 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

among his patrons and friends — men who, a few 
brief weeks previously, would not, upon credit, 
have sold him a pound of coffee, were now willing 
ing to endorse for him to the amount of hun- 
dreds of dollars, so great was their confidence 
in the permanency of his reformation. He pur- 
chased a lot of ground, and erected upon it a com- 
fortable little home for his family. Again he was 
respectable and happy. Peace and plenty were 
once more inmates of that recently desolate house. 

Some two months after Sibley's reformation, a 
term of the Supreme Court was holden in his vil- 
lage, and a number of young men were admitted 
to the bar ; and, as was the custom, they gave " a 
bar supper,'" to which Sibley w r as honored with an 
invitation. 

After some hesitancy, and much urgency upon 
the part of his wife, he consented and attended 
the supper. 

Sibley found the Court, the officers of the Court, 
and his old friends and associates at the bar, ready 
to greet him with the warmth of renewed friend- 
ship. 

Supper being oyer, any quantity of bottles was 
introduced, containing every variety and descrip- 
tion of liquors that modern invention has been 
able to produce. 

Judge Alban, presiding, drank a toast, which, 
for the credit of the bench, we would gladly sup- 
press; but, as we profess to be accurate in our nar- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 195 

ration of the facts, necessity compels us to give it 
as nearly as we can recollect, which is as follows: 

" The improvement in liquors in this age of ad- 
vancement, has kept pace with the discoveries in 
steam and electricity ; and palsied be the arm that 
would stay their onward progress. Blessed be the 
man who invented eating and drinking." 

Three cheers for Judge Alban were called for 
and given with deafening applause. 

Sibley, being the eldest member of the bar pres- 
ent, was next called upon for a toast. He rose, 
and with great calmness and deliberation took up 
his glass, and from a mug of sparkling cold water, 
that stood near, filled it to the brim, and drank as 
follows : 

"Pure cold water; the only beverage fit for man 
or beast ; and he who advocates any other, must 
sink in the estimation of virtuous men and women, 
while the curses of heaven will rest upon him and 
his posterity." 

For several seconds, after offering the above 
sentiment, Sibley stood pale and motionless, while 
the house was as silent as the chamber of death. 
At length Sibley broke the stillness of the occasion 
in the following strain : 

" Mr. President — I know I will not in vain ask 
the indulgence of my friends present, for a few 
moments, while I briefly give my reasons for offer- 
ing this sentiment." 
13* 



IOG THE UNJUST JUDGE-. 

" Mr. Sibley," quickly replied Afban, " this U 
not a Temperance meeting. You are out of order 
and cannot proceed." 

Leblond rose and said, he felt inclined to go any 
reasonable length, by way of indulging his brother 
Sibley, but this was no occasion for a temperance 
lecture; and, therefore, hoped he would desist from 
farther trespassing upon their patience. 

Borne gentleman, present, moved that Sibley be 
permitted to speak to the sentiment he had offered; 
and added that if Mr. Sibley's remarks should 
cause cold chills to run over the backs of some of 
our anti-temperance friends, the remedy was at 
hand. 

The motion was put, and after considerable pet- 
tifoging pro and con, carried, and Sibley was al- 
lowed to proceed, though not without frequent in- 
terruption. 

M Mr. President : — I have been associated with 
many of you, for more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury. You have known me in prosperity and in 
adversity. What I might have been, had I con- 
tinued sober and upright, is not for me to say. 
But this much I will say — no man ever entered up- 
on a professional career with brighter prospects 
them your unworthy speaker. What would have — 
what could have blighted those prospects, but this 
'• good man's failing/' as it is often termed ? 

u You have seen me respected. You have seen 
me in affluence. You have seen my family com- 



THE UXjL'ST judge. 11)7 

Portable and happy. You have seen me capabk 
of defending the invaded rights of myself, and 
those dependant upon me. You have seen me 
ever ready to engage in public and other laudable 
enterprises. You have seen me educating my 
children and fitting them for usefulness in society. 
You have seen me the zealous advocate of a high- 
toned, intellectual and moral culture. You have 
seen me the friend and patron of religious and 
charitable institutions. You have seen a good 
citizen, an obliging neighbour, a law-abiding man, 
a filial son, a kind husband, and an indulgent 
father.- All this I can say without boasting ; and 
no man who has known me, intimately, will gain- 
say what I have said. 

•* But I attended, early in my professional career, 
meetings of a similar character to this ; and the 
result was, I contracted a relish, a fondness for 
strong drinks which " grew with my growth and 
strengthened with my strength," and I became a 
confirmed inebriate ; since which you have seen me 
destitute of character. You have seen me in 
poverty; you have seen my family dependent up- 
on the charities of a cold and iron-hearted world. 
You have seen me incapable of protecting their 
rights or my own. You have seen me alike un- 
willing and unable to participate in the public en- 
terprises of the day. You have seen me neglec- 
ting the education of my children; allowing them 
to grow up in ignorance and vice. You have seen 



10S THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

me wallowing in the gutter, a miserable excres- 
cence of humanity. You have seen me permitting 
my aged and infirm parents to die the inmates of 
an alms house. You have seen my wife and chil- 
dren in penury and want. You have seen me 
cruelly and brutally, beating them. You have 
seen me a degraded criminal. You have seen me, 
virtually, the murderer of my offspring, before it 
was capable of recognizing the source from which 
the cruelty came. You have seen me, while shut 
up in a felon's prison, refused the poor privilege 
of attending my child's funeral. 

" These are but a few of the evils and misfor- 
tunes that have followed in the train of my dissi- 
pation and drunkenness. 

;c For a few months I have been a sober man ; 
and, through the confidence and friendship of a 
few individuals who have felt, and manifested, a 
deep interest in my welfare, I have again been 
thrown into a practice in my profession which is af- 
fording me a comfortable living. Ought I, can I, 
betray that confidence, and forfeit that friendship? 

" It is claimed for the American bar, that no 
class of men on earth, possess more noble, gener- 
ous, and manly impulses ; that none are more 
ready to aid suffering humanity. This is no fic- 
tion, but sober fact. I am your brother — your 
frail and erring brother — wedded to my cups by as 
strong ties as depraved humanity can be linked to 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 191) 

vice. Will you not in the magnanimity of your 
nature, come to my aid ? " 

"We will!" exclaimed some of the younger 
members. 

He continued : " If I were upon the top of a 
burning house the roof of which w T as tottering, 
while I was in iminent danger of being plunged 
into the raging element below, is there a man be- 
fore me who would not put forth super-human ef- 
forts to save me from that terrible death ? What 
intense excitement, verging upon madness, would 
prevail ! What running to and fro ! what shrieks! 
what exclamations ! What risks would courage 
incur to snatch me from the flames ? And yet, my 
brethren, I occupy a position more critical — more 
perilous than the one I have attempted to describe. 
If you could know, as you cannot for the reason that 
language is incapable of describing, the self-denial 
I have practiced this evening, you would come in 
a high state of excitement, to my rescue. I feel 
that, for a series of years, a cable has been around 
my neck, dragging me, irresistibly, down — that 
by a Herculean effort, the chain has been severed. 
My situation could not be more critical, if I stood 
upon the top of a powder magazine with my pock- 
ets full of missiles, attempting to fight off a score 
or more of men below, who were resolved to ap- 
ply the match. If applied, my fate is fixed. If I 
drink but a dram, the cable is again around me, 
— the match is applied, and I am a ruined mmi, 



200 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Have I a true friend who would throw this cable 
around me, or apply this match? Would your 
Honor, Mr. President, do it ? Your Honor, not 
long since, remarked, under circumstances, to my- 
self very trying — exceedingly mortifying — ' Sibley, 
you are a man of talents, and ought to be a man 
of sense.' Now, will you not aid me in attempting 
to be ' a man of sense ? ' M 

Alb an, by this time, was too drunk to appreciate 
the appeal or even understand the hit. 

" A man,* 7 continued Sibley, " under the influ- 
ence of this vice, is like Homer's giant quaffing 
from the goblet of Ulysses, crying ' more, give me 
more ! ' and still never satisfied. 

u I appeal to you, then, as men — as members of 
the bar — as my neighbors — as my personal friends, 
to aid me in resisting this fearful ruin; this fell 
destroyer. Shall I appeal in vain?" 

" We will help you ; we will do any thing in our 
power for you ;" came from every part of the 
house. 

" Will you give up your cups and sign the tem- 
perance pledge ?" said Sibley. 

:i We will ! We are ready to help you ! I Bring 
on your pledgee ! !" 

Sibley drew from his pocket a temperance pledge 
which read as follows : 

" We, the undersigned members of the bar, and 
officers of Court, bind ourselves never to drink, or 
in any way use 5 except for medicinal, orpharma- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 201 

ceutical purposes, either malt or alcoholic drinks ; 
and use all honorable means in our power to pro- 
cure the passage of the Maine Liquor law." 

To the above pledge, Sibley signed his name, 
and every man present but Alban, the Sheriff, the 
Prosecutor, and Leblond. 

After considerable altercation, between Barber, 
Leblond, Alban, and several others, the meeting 
broke up in what was very nearly allied to a row: 
and Sibley returned, that night, to his humble 
home, as happy as any man has been this side 
Jordan since the fall. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

"When impious men bear sway. 

The post of lionor is a private station. --Addison, 

In a large and splendidly furnished room, at one 

of the most fashionable hotels in the city of , 

a few days after the election, might have been 
seen Judge Jones, Leblond, Judge Alban,and Jew- 
ett, with numerous other distinguished politicians 
of the State, with. a table in their midst, covered 
with all kinds of liquors. 

" Jones," said Leblond, " you must either regard 
me as a prophet, or a man of great political sa- 
gacity ; and I believe I should prefer the latter. I 
told you, you remember, that the hanging matter, 
up North, if adroitly managed, would elect you ; 
and, now let me add, that alone saved you." 

" Well," replied Jones, " Mr. Leblond, you do 
not, in that opinion, pay a very high compliment 
to the virtue of the people." 

" That may be true," said Leblond ; " yet, such 
is the fact. And neither you nor myself ought to 
quarrel with those imperfections of our nature 
which we have seized upon, pressed into our ranks, 
and from which we have gained such signal ad- 
vantage." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 203 

"Leblond," replied Judge Jones, " I do not think 
it very creditable, to either of us, to have it said 
that the better portion of our fellow citizens were 
against us in the contest, and that we were sup- 
ported by the less respectable and virtuous because 
we were kindred spirits." 

Leblond remarked that he felt free to acknowl- 
edge the deep debt of gratitude he was under to 
the bottle, and its influence for his election ; and 
that it was a part of his nature never to abandon 
his friends. He had nothing further to say as to 
the influences that brought about the Judge's elec- 
tion ; seeing that he took it in high dudgeon. 

" I," said the Judge, " acknowledged no indebt- 
edness to the bottle, and have no league with vice." 

u Yes," said Leblond, "you are now out of the 
woods, you can afford to be saintly." 

" Leblond, I am at all times just what I appear 
to be. My enemies, though they have followed 
me with the ferocity of blood-hounds, have never 
dared charge me with dissimulation or hypocrisy. 
' Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.'" 

"Judge Jones, do you intimate that I am a vil- 
lain, sir ?" said Leblond, with much feeling. 

" By no means," answered Jones. I merely re- 
pelled the charge of hypocrisy, and called it vil- 
lainy. And I am wholly unable to see by what 
rule of construction you could infer a charge of 
villainy against you ; and I am quite as unable to 
account for your sensitiveness upon this subject. 



*204 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

It does now occur to me, however, that you were 
charged with professing friendship, in one part of 
your District, to temperance ; while in another, 
you were a rabid anti-temperance man." 

"You are, doubtless, unable to see many things 
now that you do not need votes, that yon could 
have clearly discerned before the election. The 
man in whose composition demagogism is not a 
prominent ingredient, is identically the same man 
after, that he was before his election.*' 

"That rule Mr. Leblond, would make demagogues 
of a vast majority of those who have been before 
the public, and probably include your Honor and 
myself. But there is so much of human nature in 
being a little more affable, a little more disposed 
to please, and a little less inclined to take um- 
brage before, than after the contest. A man ought 
not to be charged with dissimulation and dema- 
gogism unless there is a clear and marked de- 
parture from integrity, and fair, manly conduct. 
But, a truce to your restless thoughts ; I am glad 
you have beaten Barber, and hope you will dis- 
tinguish yourself among the Solons at the Capitol. 
Let us drink. This rum is a new drink to me. fs 
it good, Leblond ? " 

" I have not tried it, Judge," said Leblond. It 
will take but a short time to test its qualities." 

" Jewett," said Jones, after partaking very boun- 
tifully of the new drink, " that rum is a superb ar- 
ticle. Try a little of it. The election is now over, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 205 

and we are elected all round; therefore, we can 
eat, drink, and be merry*' — 

" For ' to-morrow we die ! ' " exclaimed Jewett. 

"I hope not," replied Jones. "So sudden an 
exit as that would leave me deeply in yotir olebt 
for past favors, all of which I trust I shall live long 
enough to cancel." 

" Get me out of this confounded dilemma with 
Tom Harris, and you will expunge them all with 
one fell swoop," said Jewett. 

u That is a fact," said Jones ; that thing must be 
attended to promptly. I hope, Mr. Jewett, you 
will borrow no trouble from that source." 

c: I seldom borrow trouble, Judge," replied Jew- 
ett* ." The real ills of life are sufficiently afflictive, 
without drawing upon our imaginations for ideal 
ones." 

" That is true," said Jones, as a thoughtful shade 
stole over his countenance ; and added : " How 
many, oh 1 how very many of the actual evils of 
life do we invite* and even woo ? " 

" Ay, and win," quickly added Jewett. 

: - As true as the book of Genisis," said Jones. 
u . If I had been true to the impulses of my better 
nature, this Tom Harris difficulty would never 
have occurred." 

u If I had been true to my professions, Judge," 
said Jewett, " it could not have happened." 

" The difference, then, between us, is this : that 
while you refused to obey good impulses, which 



206 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

admit is always dangerous, I ' knew my duty, but 
did it not,' and deserve to ' be beaten with many 
stripes.' " 

The question now, Judge, — and you know we 
lawyers love to stick to the point — is not who is the 
greater transgressor, you or I; but how shall I get 
freed from this difficulty ? Harris is a malicious 
dog — a desperate fellow ; and, as Pope says, 

"More fell than the tigers of the Lvbian plane.' M 

"My dear fellow give yourself no further unea- 
siness about this matter, I will attend to it," said 
Jones. 

" ' The wages of sin is death,' " said Leblond, 
who had been attentively regarding Jewett and 
Judge Jones. 

" Jew r ett fancied he saw no little acrimony in 
Leblond's manner, immediately replied : 

" Tell me, what shall thy wages be ?" And ad- 
ded, " we can quote Scripture, too, Mr. Leblond." 

Jones, seeing the turn it was likely to take — Le- 
blond being impetuous — and feeling desirous to 
change the subject again, reminded Jewett that he 
had not partaken of the rum. 

Jewett took up the bottle, and after looking at 
it a moment, repeated from Milton : 

" Of man's first disobedience and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste* 
Brought death iuto the world; and all our woe." 

£i When you are among wolves you must howl," 
said Leblond. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 207 

" Most certainly," replied Jewett, and quaffed 
his glass. 

Judge Jones rose, and stepped forward to the 
table, took a glass, and said, " Come gentlemen, 
come; let us forget our troubles. They are un- 
bidden guests at this time. Come, Jewett, partake 
of a little more of this nectar, this drink of the gods, 
and dream of diadems, and ' ribbons red and blue." 

" A diadem of beauty ?" 

rather quisically enquired Leblond. 

"The election is now over," said Jones; "and 
the ladies, I suppose, have entered the heart, or 
head — and perhaps both — of Mr. Leblond, and de- 
throned politics ; and you must not be astonished 
if you find him, for the next six months, practicing 
in Cupid's court." 

" Come, gentlemen ; don't be backward. Come 
all, and drink." 

All, accordingly, having gathered around the ta- 
ble, and drank first of one description of the " nec- 
tar," and then another, until they were qualified 
to judge of the merits of each. 

"Now," said Judge Jones, " about this Harris 
matter. What shall we do ? The bond for Jew- 
ett' s appearance at Court, is only one hundred dol- 
lars, but it must not be forfeited. We must man- 
age to buy Harris off! Suppose," continued Jones, 
< C I write to Harris, and make a proposition to 
him?" 



•208 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

u Np, Judge," said Leblond ; " that will never 
do. It will come up in judgement against you. on 
some future occasion, when you would give all 
you possess, and ten times that amount, for the 
power to recall it." 

#i Well," said Jones, u what then ? " 

u Procure some man to go and see Harris," said 
Leblond, I would, at all times, and under all cir- 
cumstances, prefer walking fifty miles, on foot and 
after night at that, to have an interview with a pol- 
itician, than to write him a letter. When it he- 
comes necessary, you can deny any charge brought 
against you, growing out of the interview ; while 
if the charge is in black and white, you will occa- 
sionally find it difficult to manage." 

" That idea," said Jones, " did not strike me. 
It would look rather bad upon paper." 

•< Politicians must have Argus eyes," said Le- 
blod. " And," continued he, " I would send some 
sharp fellow to see him, with a proposition of this 
character, that in case he would not appear and 
prosecute Jewett, he should have twenty-five, or 
even fifty dollars ; and be sure to clothe your minis- 
ter plenipotentiary with discretionary power, so he 
can rise and fall — go and come — to suit the exi- 
gencies of the occasion. Every man has his price, 
we are told upon high authority. It may be that 
his price is twenty-five dollars, and hence the ne- 
cessity of a discretionary power. He must be told 
that the bond is only one hundred, and that if 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 200 

Jevvett apprehend any danger, he will not appear, 
but forfeit his bond; in which event, Harris (being 
a lawyer), will know the amount of the bond will 
go into the public treasury and nothing into the 
pockets of Mr. Harris. He is a mercenary crea-. 
ture ; and with a little diplomacy, may be reached. " 

Judge Alban remarked, that there was an easier 
and safer way of disposing of the trouble, than 
kad yet been suggested. 

" How ? " immediately interrupted Jones. 

" Just leave the matter to me," said Alban. 

" Certainly," said Jones ; "this cursed thing did 
lake place in Alban's Judicial Circuit. Why did 
not we think of that before ? " 

" I can fix it all up," said Alban. u I can charge 
the Grand Jury they are not bound to notice in- 
fractions of the law growing out of excitement con- 
sequent upon the election; but, on the contrary, 
wholly to disregard them — that the public good de- 
mands the sacrifice." 

" Going upon the supposition," said Jones, " tbdt 
the Grand Jury should disregard your charge, and 
find a bill; what then?" 

" I will then advise the Public Prosecutor k> 
mile the indictment." 

" But suppose the Prosecuting Attorney should 
understand himself, and disregard the advice of 
the Court?" 
14 



210 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" 111 my Court, sir," said Alban, an advice is as 
imperative as an order, and must be obeyed what- 
ever the consequences may be.' 5 

" Where, Judge Alban, do you get your author- 
ity for advising a case out of the hands of the Pros- 
ecutor ? I think you can find nothing in the stat- 
ute, in the common law, or in the practice of in- 
telligent Courts to justify such a practice." 

" What difference does that make ?" said Alban. 

" The Prosecuting Attorney has no remedy. He 
has no right to a bill of exception, a writ of error, 
nor an appeal. I kick it out of court, and that is 
the last of it. I dislike that d — n Prosecutor up 
there, and it will afford me pleasure to hit him." 

" But you have a reputation to look after," said 
Jones, " and that is dearer to every jurist than all 
else beside." 

" Well, well," said Alban, " we are told by a 
great statesman, that ' in revolutionary times we 
have no Sabbath,' so in great emergencies, a great 
man adapts his measures to his exigencies." 

" If you will take the responsibility," replied 
Jones, u it is the safest and most creditable plan 
for Jewett, as the impression will then go abroad 
that there were no merits in the case, and hence 
no indictment was found; or, if found, that the 
Court regarded it as vexatious and without merit." 

" Court sits up there, next week, and," contin- 
ued Alban, " Mr. Jewett must be there to save his 
recognizance ; and I will take care of the balance." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 211 

" That will do ! " said Leblond. " I like to hear 
a man say 4 I will because I can,' when I am not 
the recipient of his tyranny. ' Might gives right,' 
is a favorite sentiment of some men." 

" That is a fact," said Lahm; anxious to deal 
Alban a blow. 

" fools rashly venture in 

Where angels dare not tread." 

Jackson's motto was, M will, because it is right;' 
but, as there is little of old Hickory, about Alban, 
and it subserves our purpose, let principle go, this 
once." 

" Come gentlemen," said Jones, " we have no 
elections to lose, let us liquor up again." 

" We have some character left," said Jewett. 
" Is that not worth preserving ? " 

" My dear fellow, said Alban, " a man who is 
under bonds upon a criminal charge, is in little 
danger of losing his character from drinking a 
glass of brandy." 

Jewett's eyes flashed, and Vie was about to re- 
spond to the vulgar attack made by Alban, when 
Jones, discovering what might be the result, inter- 
posed, by taking Jewett by the arm and leading 
him up to the table, poured out a quantity of brandy 
into two glasses, one of which he handed to Jewett, 
and the other he raised to his lips as he said, u my 
best regards to my friend Mr. Jewett." 

Jewett bowed, and said, as he quaffed his glass, 
:; your Honor, sir." 
14* 



212 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" It is now late," said Leblond, c - and it seems to 

e something less than a month since we have 
eaten any thing. Boy, bring us up twenty dishes of 

Haters !" 

The boy replied that the servants had all retired 
several hours since, and that oysters, at that late 
hour, or rather at so early an hour, (it being about 
two in the morning,) could not be cooked in that 
house. 

Alban hiccoughed, " this is ad — d pretty tavern, 
if gentlemen can't have what they call for. Bring 
us the oysters, if you have to rouse every man, wo- 
man, and child, in the establishment ! Keep a 
tavern, and can't prepare a few plates of oysters!" 

The boy, after considerable effort and as much 
delay, succeeded in rousing a servant or two ; but, 
after the lapse of more than an hour, our worthy 
Judges, Congressmen, and Politicians, were not in 
a condition to relish oysters! Alban was stretched 
at full length, in one corner of the room — in a 
deep, heavy slumber. Leblond w r as on the centre- 
table, in the same situation ; probably, dreaming 
of conquests in a more agreeable direction than 
in heartless political fights. Jones \vas lying, in a 
helpless condition, upon a sofa; while Jewett, and 
several others, had retired to bed. The balance 
were napping on chairs, in different parts of tho 
room. 

The oysters were at length introduced. "Just 
as I expected," said the boy — "all as drunk a^ 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 213 

fools." Well, when I get to be a man, I will try 
to be a sober one. If this kind of thing follows 
from becoming a great man, I shall never try to 
be a Judge, or go to Congress. Well, they will 
have to pay devlish well for these 'er oysters ; that 
is sartin. I have been up all night ; and now, they 
wont be ate. Well, that is not my business, so 
the dimes are forth-coming; and they will be, 
that's sure." So saying, the boy left them as com- 
fortable as, under the circumstances, they could 
be. 

" Lord 'a massy !" said the boy ; as he passed 
down stairs, " Jack Black and Ned Brown, don't 
make such blackguards of theirselves. " They 
get drunk, but they go home long before this time : 
and then, I think, they do not make as big fools of 
theirselves as these great larned men do." 

% # * ■ * # * % # ■ 

Judge Alban reached the county seat of the coun- 
ty of ; in due time, court was opened, the 

Grand Jury called, and sworn ; when Judge Alban 
proceeded to charge. Before he closed, he re- 
marked, in substance, that we had passed through 
a most exciting election — such as had seldom been 
witnessed since the organization of our State gov- 
ernment — that the welfare of our political institu- 
tions demanded free descussion, and perfect free- 
dom of thought and action — that any infraction 
of the law, gowing out of this exciting canvass, 
ought wholly to be disregarded ; and," said he, "I 



214 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

now charge you, expressly, to disregard any thing 
that may be brought before you, of that character." 

Here, Harris picked up his chair and placed it 
down by the side of the public Prosecutor, who 
had been taken by surprise with the charge of the 
court. 

"Why," said Harris, Lord Jeffries' was a saint, 
when compared with Alban ! Mr. Prosecutor, did 
you ever witness such a scene ? Who, even in the 
darkest days of Judicial tyranny, ever heard such 
language fall from the lips of a Judge ?" 

" I was anticipating it," said the Prosecutor. — 
"He is a most corrupt man, and has disgraced the 
bench every time he has sat upon it. Passion and 
prejudice rule the man." 

I should think he had soiled the ermine." 

" Ermine/' said the Prosecutor. " He scarcely 
knows what it means. I will bring him to his feel- 
ings, if he has any." 

"Take good care," said Harris "that he does 
not bring you to your feelings." You must re- 
member that he has the power all in his own hands, 
You fight against fearful odds, lookout or he will 
give you h — 1! I see the brimstone in his eyes." 

" I can expose him," said the Prosecutor, " be- 
fore the bar and this large crowd ; that will be a 
satisfaction at least." 

" He has the advantage of you; and, if you in- 
sult his dignity, he will send you to jail for con- 
tempt of court," 



THE UN J U ST JUDGE. 215 

€i If he could have done that, he would have long 
jsince sent the entire bar; for, I assure you, we all 
with one or two exceptions have a most perfect 
contempt for him and his court," said the Prosecutor. 

Here the Judge directed the Sheriff to furnish 
a Constable to take charge of the Grand Jury. 

"May it please your honor," said the Prosecutor, I 
apprehend, under the charge of this court, if the 
Jury are at all inclined to regard it, there will be 
nothing for the Grand Jury to do. 

"Mr. Prosecutor, you will take your seat, sir/' said 
Alban* 

"I wish to say," said the Prosecuting Attorney, a that 
there will be no business before the grand inquest 
of our county at the present term, except such as has 
grown out of the election excitement either directly 
or indirectly. We have several aggravated cases 
of assault and battery, — a number of violations 
of the law against betting — a charge for challenge 
to fight a duel, as well as two or three assaults 
with intent tG murder. Now, your honor, if these 
things are to be disregarded, then the Jury have 
nothing to do." 

"I have so charged," said Alban. " You will 
take your seat, sir. ! " 

tC Have I no rights here ? Have the people no 
rights here ? Are we to have here in this repub- 
lican country a revised and enlarged edition of the 
dark days of judicial tyranny, with extensive mar- 
ginal notes ?" 



ilG THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

"Mr. Sheriff!" vociferated Alban, "take charge 
of the Prosecutor, and convey him to jail." 

"For what?" enquired the Sheriff. 

" For contempt of this Court," bawled out Al- 
ban. 

" Because I will not flatter him," said the Pros- 
ecutor, and added : 

'•He would notflatter Neptune for his tridant, 
Nor Jove for his power to thunder." 

The Sheriff disregarded the command of the 
Court. 

" Has it come to this," exclaimed Alban, "that 
this Court is without officers?" 

The Prosecutor, taking advantage of the indis- 
position of the Sheriff to act, remarked, that his 
honor, the Judge, had committed all the contempt 
that had been committed upon the occasion, by 
playing the tyrant and assuming the despot ; that 
a greater despot and a weaker man, had never 
disgraced a court of justice ; and as he sat down, 
added : 

" Of all wild beasts, preserve me from a tyrant j 
And of all tame- --a flatterer." 

Quiet being restored, the jury retired, and after 
an hour's deliberation, returned into court a bill of 
Indictment against Jewett, endorsed by their fore- 
man, " A true Bill." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 



'217 



•'Mr. Prosecutor, the Indictment against Mr. 
Jewett, cannot be maintained. I have enquired 
into the facts, and you had better nolle it." 

U I shall not nolle it, if your honor please," said 
the Prosecutor. 

" Well, the Court will. Mr. Clerk, enter a nolle 
prosequi on that indictment," handing it to the 
Clerk. 




CHAPTER XVIH. 

So swift trod sorrow on the heels of joy.-- -Po Uok 

" Barber." said Leblond, as the former passed 
the office of the latter. " how were you pleased 
with the remarks of Sibley, the other evening, at 
the young men's supper ? " 

" Very much," replied Barber. " I hope he will 
never again touch liquor. If he do, he is ruined — 
if he do not, he will very soon occupy his former 
position among us. 

" It is ail nonsense for him to attempt to quit," 
said Leblond. " He will drink in less than a month.'' 

" You ought not to say so, even if you thought 
it," said Barber. 

" Why not ? " inquired Leblond. 

" For this very important reason," continued Bar- 
ber : " if he should happen to hear such remarks, it 
would tend to impair confidence in himself, and 
hasten the very thing we all fear." 

" This temperance move is all a farce , said Le- 
blond. " A trick of political hucksters to divide and 
conquer. I have no faith in it whatever." 

" It may be that you have no faith in it, and it is 
even possible that you regard it as a trick : yet, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 210 

that does not make it such. And," continued Bar- 
ber, "there are thousands upon thousands, every 
where, and in every condition in life, who need 
the aid of a stringent Liquor law." 

" Who," inquired Leblond, "in this community ?" 

" Sibley, for one," replied Barber. 

"Well," said Leblond, "name another, if you 
can." 

" Mr. Leblond, for another," quickly he re- 
sponded. 

"What ! " ejaculated Leblond, " me, sir ? " 

" Yes, sir, you /" 

" Mr. Barber, do you intend to insult me, in my 
own office?" 

"No, sir; I do not." 

" Do you intend to charge me with being a drunk- 
ard, sir? I shall submit to no such imputations, 
sir ! " 

"I do not make the charge, for the reason that 
I do not believe you are a drunkard ; but my love 
of candor compels me to say you are in most im- 
inent danger of becoming such; and, unless you 
stop just where you are, and that immediately, you 
will fill a drunkard's grave, contrary to all the res- 
olution and firmness you possess, and that is no 
mean share." 

" Barber, if you were not in my office, I would 
call you a fool." 

" That," coolly replied Barber, " would not be 
gentlemanly ; it would not render me such, nor 



'220 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

would it prevent you from becoming what I pre- 
dict. Now, Leblond," continued Barber, " you are 
well enough acquainted with me to know that I 
cannot be deterred from saying what I think upon 
the subject. I entertain no unkind feelings for 
you, and will, therefore, talk to you with reference 
to your good alone.' 1 

" That is apocryphal, to say the least of it," re- 
plied Leblond. 

" No, sir ; " said Barber, " I can have no motive 
but your good." 

" A little pent up malice to gratify," said Le- 
blond, " that is all." 

" None at all ; not the slightest," said Barber. 
" You defeated me, in the late contest for Congress; 
that you had a right to do. I did all I could fairly, 
to defeat you, and failed. Only one of us could 
be elected, and you are the happy man. It is true, 
I thought at the time, and still think, that you were 
not as frank and candid in your electioneering, as 
I was. I thought I 

" merited, alas ! a better fate ; 

But. heaven thought otherwise.'"' 

" Mr. Barber, you are probably, honestly, but 
certainly, mistaken in my habits," said Leblond. 

" Leblond, we are apt to lack candor with our 
friends. Too often we say to them, what we know 
will be agreeable, without reference to their good. 
Now, sir, their is neither philosophy nor good sense, 
nor is there anv honesty in such a course. Gener- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 221 

ally, the man who is guilty of a fault of this kind. 
is the last to notice it. He is a confirmed and ir- 
redeemable drunkard, and a topic of conversation 
among his neighbors before he discovers it himself. 
Leblond, we ought to regard the man who will, in 
a kind and friendly manner, tell us of our faults, 
as our best friend; for the reason that it requires 
no little courage to enable him to perform that 
disagreeable duty." 

''Barber," said Leblond, anxious to change the 
subject, "Sibley will be drinking again, in less 
than a month." 

I do not believe it," said Barber : " yet, if you 
honestly entertain that opinion, it is a strong ad- 
ditional reason why you should be more cautious 
as to your own habits. 

i: If you are honest in your apprehensions as to 
my fate you must regard me as a very weak brother, 
and you have had evidence to the contrary." 

"That does not follow," replied Barber, without 
seeming to notice the spirit in whioh it was said. 
" Intellect is no protection against the inveteracy 
of habit. I could, and would refer you to numer- 
ous instances, in ancient and modern times, in 
proof of the position I have assumed, did I not 
know you are well aware that many, of the first in- 
tellects of every age, have been victimized by the 
fell destroyer. Dryden has beautifully expressed it 

" Strong virtue, like strong nature, struggle? still ; 
Bxerte it? elf. and then throws off the ill." 






*22'2 THE UNJUST JL'DGE. 

The struggles of strong virtue, are all that will save 
a man in clanger from this vice. While strong 
heads may save men from the commission of crime, 
virtuous hearts can alone save them from contract- 
ing vicious habits. The universal experience of 
ages will attest the fact.'' 

Leblond, unable to reply, and feeling his situa- 
tion was becoming more and more uncomfortable, 
made another effort to change the subject, by in- 
sisting that Sibley would very soon be drinking 
again. 

" He will not,' 5 said Barber. 

" He will," replied Leblond. 

" He will not," repeated Barber. 

'• He will," continued Leblond. 

" You are entirely mistaken in the man," said 
Barber. " He has too much firmness of purpose." 

; ' Perhaps you would risk a little money upon 
your opinion of Sibley's firmness of purpose ? " 

No, sir!" said Barber. " A wager is a fool's 
last argument." 

" Yes, sir ! and fools often lose at the game," 
retorted Leblond. " I am always ready to back 
up my opinions with money." 

" I, upon the contrary, usually back mine with 
argument of a different character," said Barber. 

u You dare not bet," said Leblond. 

"I dare do anything that an honest man can do 
with a clear conscience," said Barber. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE, 223 

u I'll bet you one hundred dollars," continued 
Leblond, " that Sibley is drinking again in less 
time than one month. Now, cover it, if you are a 
man ; and, if not, be a little more modest, and 
make less parade of your opinions." 

" In violation of principle, and my convictions 
of right, I'll cover your money," said Barber. 

'• Where shall we make the deposit? " inquired 
Leblond. 

" Any where," replied Barber. " With Mr. Ames, 
across the street, I suppose." 

They walked over the way, and deposited with 
Mr. Ames, each, one hundred dollars, in pursuance 
of the above arrangement; and Leblond " went 
on his way rejoicing ;" while Barber was conscious 
that he had compromised his character, his prin- 
ciples, and his dignity — felt that he had disgraced 
himself, and had been guilty of gross folly. 

" Now," soliloquized Leblond, " we'll see who is 
the fool. Til bleed the sage gentleman, to the tune 
of one hundred, certain." 

Barber walked directly to Sibley's office, and in- 
formed him of what was done. And urged him, 
by all he valued in life — by his hopes in the future 
world, to abstain. 

Sibley was affected even to tears, and replied : 
" Barber, I have every thing to gain, and noth- 
ing to lose, in clinging to principle ; while I have 
every thing to lose, and nothing to gain by a de- 
parture from it." 



224 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Leblond, after an absence of a few hours, re- 
turned to his office, ill at ease. He had accom- 
plished his purpose, in part, but the more he re- 
volved the matter in his mind, the less he felt in- 
clined to draw Sibley into the whirlpool from which 
he had so recently escaped. 

Finally, he was heard to say : " What am I to 
do; let. old Barber have my money? No, that 
will not do. I have earned it * in the sweat of my 
face/ and he shall not appropriate it to his " own 
benefit and behoof," that is as certain as I live!. 
What then ? Go to Barber and tell him this bet- 
ting is all foolish, and that I would prefer losing 
the money, to seeing Sibley drink again ; and pro- 
pose drawing the bet ? " After a moment's re- 
ileetion, hecontinued : " I don't like th#t idea ; it 
would be humiliating. I dogged him into this bet, 
and now, to back out of it would be yielding more 
than I ought. I won't do it." 

He sat, wrapt in thought, for a considerable 
time, while fierce passions were at war in his bo- 
som. "A capital idea! That is it ! I can tell 
Sibley that I have made the bet, and have him 
take a dram — and but a dram — by which I can 
win the money ; and that, by way of considera- 
tion, I will give him one half of the prize I shall 
bear off. But, how am I to approach Sibley ? And' 
then suppose, after he takes one dram, he should 
insist upon another and another, and relapse into- 
his old habits ? That would be horrible ! horrible ! fe 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 225 

It was only last Sabbath I saw him genteely dress- 
ed, with his wife and family, all neatly and taste- 
fully attired, on their way to Church. Incur the 
risk of breaking up this felicity — this beatic joy ?" 
He sprang to his feet, and exclaimed : " No, by 
hell ! I can't ! " And began, in a deep state of agi- 
tation, to walk back and forward, across the floor 
of his office. 

He calmed down and muttered, " d — n it, our 
first thoughts are always the best. I will go to 
Sibley ; he is not a fool ; and, for fifty dollars, he 
can take one glass and then quit. But it will not 
do for me to go with him. 

" We must draw in somebody that may stand 
'Twixt us and danger.'' 

That is, however, easily got along with. I can 
see Jake Infamy, the grocery keeper, and send 
Sibley to him, with the understanding that he is 
to have one glass, and one only. But, I will dream 
over this thing, and to-morrow, if I am of the 
same opinion, it can be fixed. Curse Barber ! I 
almost w 7 ish his Satanic Majesty had had him be- 
fore he passed by here. This confounded affair 
has annoyed me more than any little incident in 
the w T hole course of my life ; and then, it may 
prove more than a little incident. 

Leblond rose, next morning, feverish and stiM 
debating with himself whether he ought not to go 
to Barber — frankly acknowledge his error — and 

draw the bet. And thus he continued suspended 
15 



226 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

between duty and avarice, until near the close of 
the month, having, in the meantime, been drinking 
freely. On the morning of the last day of the 
time specified, Leblond dropped into a grocery and 
took, in the course of two hours, three or four 
heavy potations, and then repaired to Sibley's of- 
fice, remarking to Infamy as he left, that he would 
"try him on, at all events." 

" The wager, as related to Sibley, by Barber, 
had entirely passed from his memory : and, con- 
sequently, when Leblond entered his office, the 
object of his visit did not occur to Sibley. 

i: Mr. Sibley,'' remarked Leblond, "I have a fa- 
vour to ask of you, this morning. It is of a very 
delicate character, yet I have no doubt you will 
confer it." 

" I am under many obligations to you, Mr. Le- 
blond. Name ycrur desire, and if it is within the 
range of possibilities, it shall be gratified." 

Leblond hesitated, but finally gave Sibley to un- 
derstand that he wanted him to drink a glass of 
brandy at the grocery. 

" Sir," exclaimed Sibley, you have drawn a draft 
upon me that I must dishonor." 

" Leblond was so much under the influence of 
liquor that he was void of the little sensibility he 
usually possessed ; and, therefore, went on to enu- 
merate the very many favors he had -bestowed 
upon Sibley and his family, and wound up by al- 
luding to the fact, that Barber was not and never 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 227 

had been his friend, and that while he had stepped 
forward and defended him upon his trial, Barber 
allowed himself to be used against him upon the 
part of the State. 

Sibley remembered the manner of Barber's at- 
tack upon him, and while it ought to have roused 
his pride and strengthened- his resolution, by re- 
minding him of his degradation, it fired his re- 
venge and inclined him to favor Leblond's propo- 
sition, 

* C I acknowledge that I owe you a debt of grati- 
tude I shall, probably, never be able to pay," 
remarked Sibley.- — " That you have claims upoa 
my gratitude and regard, no other man ever has 
had. or can have; and," continued he, < k it is with 
the deepest regret that I now refuse to comply with 
your present request. You could make no requi- 
sition on me to which I would not yield, did it not 
involve my shame, my degradation, my complete 
ruin. Ought you, can you insist upon this? I 
would rather borrow ten times the amount of the 
bet and give it to you. I would rather, at this mo-, 
ment, suffer the amputation of my right arm than 
grant your request." 

" Can't you," said Leblond, " take one dram and 
then stop ? " 

" That is exceedingly doubtful, sir;" said Sib- 
ley. " But, suppose I did, it would do you no good 

unless it became public, and that publicity would 
15* 



228 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

rob me of the confidence of my patrons and friends, 
and be the death knell of all my hopes in life.*' 

Leblond, with all the archness of a fiend, as- 
sumed a tone of voice in unison with Sibley's 
lacerated feelings, and remarked that the wager 
was a most unfortunate incident, and that if fifty 
times the amount involved, would recall the fol- 
lies of that hour, he would willingly give it ; but 
it w T as more than a mere matter of dollars and 
cents — it involved his wounded pride and disgrace. 

" But," returned Sibley, "it involves my wounded 
pride, my disgrace. It goes beyond that — it in- 
volves my ruin — and that of my family — in time, 
and, may be, in eternity." 

" Gome, Sibley, come ; let 's take a stroll and dis- 
pel this melancholy that's mantling your counte- 
nance." 

They walked down street, and as they passed 
along, Leblond suggested an ice lemonade. 

Sibley opposed going into a saloon. 

Leblond insisted the drink proposed, was quite 
as harmless as coffee. 

They entered a saloon, and Leblond called for 
the ade which was immediately prepared and 
placed upon the counter. After drinking about 
one fourth of the contents of his glass, Leblond 
carefully raised a decanter, and while Sibley's atten- 
tion was in another direction, poured a small quan- 
tity of brandy into his glass. Without having no- 
ticed what had occurred, Sibley quaffed his glass, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 229 

and instantly turned upon Leblond and exclaimed: 
"You emptied brandy in my glass, sir !■" 
Leblond drew down his brows, and cautiously 
began a reply, without knowing precisely what 
shape to give it — whether to deny the charge or 
attempt a mitigation of his baseness. 

While Leblond was stammering and taxing his 
mental energies for an answer, Sibley seized the 
bottle and filled his glass to the brim with brandy, 
and impelled by an insatiate appetite, roused by 
Leblond's imposition, drank it to the bottom, and 
immediately left the saloon. 

Leblond, stupefied as well as alarmed at the re- 
sult of his villainy, in sullen silence followed Sib- 
ley, at a distance, until he saw him enter a grocery. 
He quickened his pace, and was at his side in time 
to seize his arm, as he was in the act of raising 
a glass of liquor to his lips, exclaiming, almost at 
the top of his voice, " In heaven's name, Sibley, 
what are you doing?" 

Sibley turned upon him, and cried out, " In hell's 
name, what have you done, sir ? " 

Contrary to Leblond's remonstrance, and in spite 
of all his efforts, Sibley drank his glass — reeled 
out and staggered up the street — entered his office 
a moment, and then proceeded to his house. As 
he crossed the threshold of his door he fell. Mrs. 
Sibley rose, and as she raised up both hands, ex- 
claimed, " Oh ! Sibley, Sibley ! Desolation has 
again entered our humble abode!" 



230 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Sibley gathered himself up, and caught her by 
the hair of the head and dragged her into the yard, 
when she cried for help. The eldest daughter, a 
most amiable, pious young girl, and devoted to her 
father, in an upper chamber, unconscious of what 
was transpiring, until she heard the cry for help, 
rushed down — snatched an axe that chanced to be 
standing near the door, and in the wild delirium of 
the moment, dealt him, upon the head, six blows, 
any one of which was sufficient to produce death, 
and became a raving maniac. 



CHAPTER XIX. # 

But sweeter still than this, than these, than all, 
Is first and passionate love ■ it stands alone 
Like Adams' recollection of his fi\ll.-- Byron. 

" :i Amelia," said her father, as he came, puffing 
and blowing, into her room in a complete state of 
excitement and exhaustion, " the Honorable Mr. 
Leblond is in town. I've just been at the hotel 
and met him." 

" And what is that to me?" coolly, and with 
apparent great indifference, replied Amelia, while 
her pulse was increased to about one hundred to 
the minute. 

il I supposed you would like to see him," said Ire, 
with an affected carelessness. 

"Why should I?" retorted Amelia, with some 
warmth. . 

"0 3 because you were old school-mates." 

" Father," said Amelia, " if Lucius Leblond 
possesses the spirit that animated him when a boy, 
I incline to the opinion he will trouble you?" house 
but little." 

Without noticing what had been said, he required 
her to prepare for his reception, and added : " Why, 
Amelia, he is a Member of Congress — is a fine 



232 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

lawyer — has a heavy practice — and I have been 
informed, by a gentleman directly from his part of 
the country, that the fellow has actually become 
rich ! Who would 'a thought it ? " 

" It is true, wa were school-mates, and were at- 
tached from childhood, but you compelled me to 
treat him with disrespect because he had the mis- 
fortune to be poor. I was satisfied, when he left 
here, he would sooner or later distinguish himself. 
He possessed a superior intellect, and was as am- 
bitious as Julius Csesar. Then, you saw no merit 
in him, because the almighty dollar was wanting. 
Then, I must not associate with that ' trifling Lu; : 
but now, 'the Honorable Mr. Leblond has come to 
town.' I will," continued she, ' c give him no en- 
couragement, however strongly he may desire to 
renew our former friendship " — manifesting more 
opposition than her feelings would justify, In 
truth, she desired to see him, and secretly enter- 
tained the hope that he had not forgotten his first 
love. 

" You must do as I desire in the premises," quick- 
ly interrupted the father, and repaired to another 
part of the house for the purpose of communicat- 
ing to his wife the fact, that the Hon, Lucius Le- 
blond was in town ; and after he had imparted the 
information he added : " Now, mother, we must en- 
deavor to bring about a match between Lucius 
and Amelia." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 233 

" There are many things to be considered," said 
the mother, who had much more penetration than 
her husband. " Are Amelia's affections not enlisted 
in another direction ?. What do you know about 
Lucius' character? He has been absent for some 
years, and may have contracted vicious habits and 
become dissolute ; so that, whatever his position 
in society may be, or whatever his circumstances 
otherwise may have become, he would be unwor- 
thy of our daughter." 

" Oh, fudge ! " said the father ; "what signifies 
1 affections in another direction?' Affections are 
very easily transferred when convenience and profit 
require the conveyance. And, as to his habits, if 
they are irregular and bad, how can you account 
for his success in money-making ; for his large 
practice at the bar, and his election to Congress?" 

"You sterner sex," returned the mother, "maybe 
able, with comparative ease, to transfer your affec- 
tions to suit exegencies; but with us, matters of 
the heart are not to be trifled with. In a neighbor- 
ing city, I notice in one of our public prints, there 
is at this time, over one hundred applications pen- 
ding for divorce ; and I have no doubt, if the fact 
could be ascertained, it would appear in each case, 
that there had been one or more previous trans- 
fer of the affections upon the part of one or both. 
Tupper beautifully expresses my idea : 

" If the love of the heart is blighted, it buddeth pot again ; 
If that pleasant song is forgotten, it is to be learnt no more." 



*231 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" The marriage relation is, of all others, the 
most sacred ; and, unless it is based upon pure, as 
well as reciprocal affection, there is great dan- 
ger of discord, and the thousand other troubles ^that 
break up and ruin families. I would rather fol- 
low Amelia to he: grave than witness her mercenary 
marriage." " As to his success in business," con- 
tinued she, " how often do we see the most disso- 
lute, for a time, i flourish like a green bay tree ?' 
And in politics, generally, the greater the scamp, 
and the more unprincipled the man, the more cer- 
tain is success. With a plentiful supply of villainy, 
and a moderate portion of cunning it requires but 
little intellect to secure temporary political success.' 

" Is Amelia engaged ?" enquired her father. 

Not that I know of," replied the mother. 

" Well," continued he, " why talk about affec- 
tions in another direction ? " 

" Because," replied she, " this tampering witl.i 
the affections — this match-making, and match- 
breaking, is a very delicate business; and hence, 
I instituted the inquiry. It is seldom that attach- 
ments formed late in life, have anything like per- 
manency about them ; and why ? Because the en- 
tire region of the heart has been occupied and re- 
occupied, until it has become sterile, unproductive, 
and incapable of producing anything beyond the 
respect or regard an individual would have for one 
o-f his or her own sex. And hence, late marriages 
are always to be avoided, unless there is sufficient 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 235 

sterling good sense, on both sides, to keep in check 
the less amiable qualities of our nature." 

Here, he interrupted, by reminding her that 
she was always moralizing and philosophizing on 
every thing, however trivial. 

She answered him, by hoping that he did not 
consider the temporal, and possibly the eternal, 
welfare of his only daughter and only child, a mat- 
ter of little consequence. 

The old man, intent upon his purpose, (as was 
characteristic of him, and hence his success in life.) 
was not to be foiled, insisted upon entertaining 
company that evening, for the benefit of the " Hon, 
Mr. Leblond." 

He returned to his store, and immediately put 
two or three of his clerks to writing notes of invi- 
tation. By noon of that day, the bon ton of the 
town were notified of his intention, that night, to 
give a supper. Among others, Leblond received a 
notification, but the old gentleman, not willing to 
trust a mere note, returned again to the hotel, 
and had an interview with, Leblond, managed 
to let him know the supper was in honor of him 
and his arrival ; exacted and received a pledge 
from Leblond, that he would be present. 

Leblond received the old man with great clever- 
ness, and left upon his mind a very favorable im- 
pression. 

During the afternoon, and three or four hours 
before the company was expected, Leblond put 



236 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

himself in as complete trim as his well supplied 
wardrobe would admit, and called upon Amelia. 
When the announcement was made that a gentle- 
man was in the parlor and wished to see Amelia, 
she declined seeing him. 

Her father, who happened to be present where 
she was in the kitchen, superintending the arrange- 
ments for the coming supper, suggested that it 
might be the " Hon. Mr. Leblond," and therefore, 
insisted upon her repairing immediately to the par- 
lor. 

After much hesitancy, Amelia entered the room. 

Leblond rose, and met her near the door. Both 
crimsoned, and neither heard what the other said. 
He seated her upon the sofa, and himself in a 
large rocking-chair, near by. 

After the confusion of the meeting was over, 
Amelia said — 

" It has been a long time since we. have had 
the pleasure of seeing you in this part of the 
country;" and added, "it has been as much as 
eight years since I saw you." 

"I have seen you, very frequently, since that;" 
replied Leblond. 

" When and where ? " exclaimed Amelia, with 
some surprise. 

" In visions of the night," answered Leblond. 

Amelia blushed, and was silent. 
Our lovers felt deeply embarrassed. The thoughts 
of other days were upon them. The reminiscence! 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 237 

of childhood and early youth were crowding upon 
their minds, and it stopped their utterance The 
silence was at length broken by Amelia, who 
thought Mr. Leblond had grown considerable since 
she had last seen him. 

Leblond replied, that when he left, his height 
was five feet ten, and that it was now six feet and 
two ; and added that Miss Amelia had changed 
quite as much as he had. 

" Mr. Leblond," said Amelia, " You must have 
enjoyed excellent health; at least you have that 
appearance." 

" Very good," replied Leblond. " I have labored 
very hard, and studied some ; and yet my appear- 
ance would, probably, not indicate that I had done 
much at either." 

" You have had some out-door exercise, I hope ?" 
remarked Amelia. 

"Oh, yes;" said Leblond. "I have confined 
myself to my office but very little for the last few 
months. I have been engaged in what we politi- 
cians call 'campaigning. 5 " 

" You made it pay, I have had the pleasure to be 
informed ; " blushing slightly as she recollected the 
source and occasion of the information. 

" That remains behind the curtain of the future," 
said Leblond. " There is little advantage to be 
derived from entering the arena and turning polit- 
ical gladiator. There is always some wear and 
tear of conscience." 



238 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" I hope," exclaimed Amelia, " you came out of 
the struggle unscathed?" Discovering that she 
threw a little too much feeling into the inquiry, 
she colored slightly, and was again silent. 

Leblond, feeling that he could not answer in the 
affirmative without a misrepresentation, bowed, 
and proceeded to say, that so numerous were the 
political aspirants, at the present day, that it was a 
constant process of pulling down and climbing up. 
That as soon as a man acquired some position, 
there were so many interested in pulling him 
down and pushing him out of the way, that unless 
he was a man of much more than ordinary caliber, 
his political course was a brief one ; and when he 
was forced from the arena, he was generally in a 
crippled condition, and usually disqualified for 
grappling with any other pursuit in life." 

'-'Forbear, you things 

That stand upon the pinnacles of state, 

To boast your slippery height; when you do fall 

You dash yourselves in pieces, never to rise." 

is the sentiment of Ben Johnson," said Amelia, and 
then expressed the hope that he would get out 
without being pushed out and dashed in pieces. 

Leblond replied that there was an occasional 
instance, such as she had suggested, but they were 

• '-'Like angels visits, few and far between." 

Men," continued he, love " power — love excite- 
ment — love praise — love to hear the huzzas of the 
crowd, and seldom abandon the hope of obtaining 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 23*9 

the top rung of the political ladder until they find 
themselves prostrate in the dust at the foot, inca- 
pable of rising. Tickell expresses it more poeti- 
cally, and with quite as much truth, when he says : 

'■■ Thus the fond moth around the taper plays, 
And sports and flutters near the treacherous blaze :• 
Ravish'd with joy, he wings his eager flight, 
Nor dreams of ruin in so clear a light : 
He tempts his fate, and courts a glorious doom, 
A bright distinction and a shilling tomb." 

Leblond, having remained longer than fashion* 
or policy would sanction, rose to leave, when Ame- 
lia expressed the hope they would have the pleas- 
ure of his society again, during the evening. 

Leblond bowed assent, bade her good afternoon, 
and left. 

After hereached his room, he threw himself upon 
a. lounge, and soliloquized as follows : 

" The ' Spectator/ which is good British au- 
thority, at least, tells us "lovers are always allowed 
the comfort of soliloquy.' Things are right if I 
have not misinterpreted the signs of the times. 
So far as the old gentleman is concerned, he is now 
piling Pelion upon Ossa. Well, he knows about 
as little as when I knew him formerly, and his 
judgment quite as imperfect. He understands the 
mysterious art of gathering and keeping together 
th-e dollars ; and, if I should become his futnre son- 
in-law, this will cover many imperfections. But 
the girl is more interesting than when I last saw 
her. She has been maturing and storing her gift- 



240 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

ed intellect. What a sensation a woman of her 
appearance and versitile acquirements would pro- 
duce at the National Capitol. Well, we shall see, 
in the course of a very few days, in what all these 
things will result. She is the only woman that 
has ever awakened in my bosom the tender passion. 
I came very near acknowledging it, too, when I 
told her I had frequently seen her in visions of the 
night. That was making a declaration rather too 
soon; but she has not forgotten olden times. They 
seem to steal over the chords of her memory, like 
the mild, etherial tones of the iEolian harp, or 
strains of distant melody." 

Here the idea flitted across his mental vision, 
that it was singular a lady of such rare accomplish- 
ments, to say nothing of the solid worth and shining 
charms in the shape of one hundred thousand dol- 
lars in stocks, and those not 'fancy,' should not 
have suitors ; and he exclaimed, " if she has been 
sought and won, how ray less will be my pilgrimage 
in life ? But in the language of Milton — 

"What need a mau forestall his date of grief, 
And run to meet what he would most avoid 5 

• if they be but false alarms of fear, 

How bitter is such self-delusiou V 

After some time spent in silent thought, he rose 
and gave every possible attention to his toilet that 
the most exquisit taste could require, and then 
started for the house of Amelia, where all his 
hopes now centred. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 241 

Though he reached his intended father-in-law's, 
early, he found the house crowded. The rumor 
had gotten afloat, either through surmise, or some 
casual remark of the old gentleman, that the sup- 
per was given in honor of the future son in-law ; 
every person, son and maiden, grey-haired father 
and mother, beau and exquisite, honored with a 
bid, was present ; and at an unusually early hour. 
When Leblond entered, he was astonished at the 
sensation he produced. He found himself the 
iC observed of all observers." He unostentatiously 
took a seat, and engaged in conversation with a 
gentleman who happened to be in his neighbor- 
hood. 

After the abatement of the sensation produced 
by the appearance of Leblond, who w r as tall and 
finely proportioned, the evening passed off with- 
out any occurrence to distinguish it from an ordi- 
nary occasion of the kind ; and Leblond returned 
to the hotel — retired to rest ; and again saw Ame- 
lia in the vision of his pillow 7 ; but more beautiful 
than ever. Seven o'clock, the next morning, found 
Leblond in Amelia's parlor, listlessly turning over 
the pages of some choice books upon her pier- 
table, aw r aiting her arrival. 

Amelia soon made her appearance. Leblond 
rose, and greeted her with a cordial shake of the 
hand. Their attachment had commenced in the 
little, log school house, early in the morning of 

16 



242 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

life, and had ripened into devotion ; but had been 
buried in the silent chambers of the heart, with- 
out either being conscious that the other possessed 
it. An acknowledgement would have, doubtless, 
been made of its existence upon the part of Le- 
blond, and reciprocated by Amelia, had it not 
been for the opposition of the father, He had 
carried it so far as to positively interdict any asso- 
ciation. The extent of his unkindness, Leblond 
had never known until he, that day, learned it 
from Amelia. He had suspected its existence from 
her reserve and affected indifference for him, 
which he had the shrewdness to perceive was 
affectation. Stung by the repulse, he entered 
college and nearly became a martyr to his books. 
He entered upon the study of the law with the 
same high and holy purpose of making himself 
worthy of Amelia. He seldom entered upon any 
enterprise without having her present in his mind. 
Her mellow and Hute-like voice was constantly 
ringing in his ears ; and when he engaged in the 
trial of an important cause, he imagined her by 
his side, listening to each word as it fell from his 
lips. Reader, imagine his felicity, when he tv#« 
informed by her, that he had never ceased to oc- 
cupy the big armed chair in her affections. 

The unkind remark, that he was " a poor unlet- 
tered boy," was the legitimate fruit of affection 
provoked by little flirtations carried on by Leblond. 
among her cotemporaries of the village. 



< 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. '243 

Dinner was now announced ; when, Leblond 
•^aid, " You dine early." 

Amelia replied that the servants, from some 
cause, had anticipated the usual time ; that they 
dined at twelve. 

Leblond took out his watch, which made it after 
two. 

They immediately proceeded to the dining room, 
where they found the old gentleman, apparently 
much pleased with himself, and the rest of man- 
kind ; while the old lady was in a more thought- 
ful mood. 

Leblond rose from the table with the intention 
of procuring a conveyance, and visiting his parents, 
who then resided some two or three miles from the 
village. Before leaving he must see Miss Amelia 
a moment alone. He accordingly entered the 
parlor ; soon after which, Amelia was seated by 
his side ; where they remained, unconscious of the 
lapse of time, until they were summoned to tea. 

They had plighted their faith — were affianced. 
Amelia pressed him to remain for tea, but he tore 
himself away, and was soon in the humble abode 
of his parents, where he w T as the recipient of the 
hospitalities of their frugal board. 

After rusticating for several days, and furnish- 
ing his father the means of purchasing him a 
small but comfortable home, he returned to the 
village and spent some two days in the society of 
Amelia : realizing the beauty of Tupper, as he 
lis* 



* 



244 THE UNJUST JUDG.E. 

never had before, though he had read and repeated 
it often. 

'• Love is a sweet idolatry, enslaving all the soul-- 

A mighty spiritual force, warring with the dullness of matter; 

An Angel-mind, breathed into a mortal, though fallen, yet h-y-*- 

beautiful ! 
All the devotion of the heart in all its depth and grandeur.'' 

All was now done but the most difficult part.— 
To submit the negotiation for the ratification of 
her parents, was neither a business matter nor a 
legitimate part of the practice in court of the lit- 
tle god Cupid. The more he revolved the thing in 
his mind, the more difficult it became. Amelia 
had left the parlor some thirty minutes, and it 
seemed to him an age. He finally rose, and bid- 
ding Mr. Leonard good night, walked some dis- 
tance north of the village, and was soon in the 
midst of a delightful grove of sugar maple. In 
that sequestered spot he sat upon a moss covered 
mound — thrown up by a tree that had probably 
been torn out by the rude storm, but had long 
since mouldered to its former elements — viewing 
the varied hues of a distant forest as the mellowed 
rays of an autumnal sun, retiring beyond the west- 
ern hills, lingered upon its foliage — while he re- 
peated from Tupper the following exquisite linee: 

<'• There is a fragrant blossoa, that maketh glad the garden ef the heart; 
Its root lieth deep ; it is delieatc, yet lasting, as the lilac crocua of 

autumn ! 
Loneliness and thought are the dews that water it morn and even ; 
Memory and Absence cheri>h it, as the balmy breathiugs of the soutk :. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 245 

Its sun is the brightness of affeetion, and it bloomcth in the borders 

of Hope; 
Its corupauions are the gentle flowers, and the brier withereth by its 

side. 
I saw it budding in beauty; I felt the magic of its smile." 

Leblond felt as he had never before. His sym- 
pathies were all upon the side of virtue. He sat 
forming resolutions and plans for future life, until 
the dews of evening began to distil around him, 
and the shades of night settle upon the beautiful 
landscape spread out before him. 

Among the resolutions he had formed was that 
he would never again drink anything that would 
intoxicate. And, for the purpose of freeing him- 
self from the temptation that would beset him 
upon his return home, he determined to come out 
an open and avowed friend and advocate of the 
Maine law, and embrace all suitable opportuni- 
ties of publicly discussing the necessity and im- 
portance of its passage. 

He returned and spent the evening with Amelia. 
Before leaving the hotel, he attempted to pen 
Mr. Leonard a line, and in that way, invite a rati- 
fication of the treaty, but he invariably came to a 
halt as soon as he had written, " L. Leonard, 
Esq,, My Dear Sir :" and, after several ineffectual 
efforts, quitted the unpleasant task, for the more 
agreeable one of a tete-a-tete with Amelia. 

In the course of the evening, Mr. Leonard came 
into the parlor ; and, thereupon, Amelia left it. 

" Now 7 " thought Leblond, " is my time; and 



246 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

he stammered it out more awkwardly than he had 
ever done anything. After giving his consent, 
and sitting a few moments, Mr. Leonard rose up, 
took his hat and left the room ; when, in the course 
of a few moments, Mrs. Leonard entered the par- 
lor. Leblond met her at the door, and enquired 
whether they had her consent. She nodded assent; 
and sobbed, " Amelia is a good girl ;" and imme- 
diately left the room. 

- Leblond and Amelia fixed the period for their 
union, which was to occur as he was passing 
through, on his way to Congress ; and separated 
a& do lovers usually. 

Leblond, in less than an hour, was on his way 
home, at the top of Railroad speed ; where he 
safely arrived during the ensuing evening. 



CHAPTER XX. 

So he transgresseth yet again, and falletli by little and little, 
Till the grouud crumble beneath him and he sinketh in the gulf des- 
pairing, [thing?, 
For there is nothing in earth so small that it may net produce great 
And no swerving from a right line, that may not lead eternally astray. 

Tupper. 

Judge Alban, Prosecutor Lahm, and Sheriff Sikes, 
had engaged actively in the political campaign, 
previous to which no one of whom had been re- 
garded as a confirmed inebriate, yet each was fond 
of a glass, and were in the habit of drinking, more 
or less, every week ; and would, occasionally, be- 
come quite intoxicated. 

During the political contest, the Sheriff confined 
his operations to the county in which he resided, 
travelling from town to town, drinking freely, and 
as freely treating the friends and supporters of Le- 
blond — it was said — with Leblond's money; but 
of that we are not certain, and therefore, will not 
venture the positive assertion. 

The field of Alban and Lahm was more extended. 
They w^ent from county to county, and from town 
to town, in each county in the Congressional 
District ; anfl, as they passed, called, not upon the 
sober, thinking, and better portion of the commu- 
nity, but mingling with that class of our fellow- 



248 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

citizens who constitute the floating vote in every 
political contest — charging Barber with being a 
temperance man, illiberal and contracted in all 
his views; while they claimed for Leblond, that he 
had no connection with any of the fanatics of 
the day — was generous to a fault — liberal in all 
his notions and views — would drink a dram when 
he needed it, and always had a few dimes with 
which to treat his friends. 

On one occasion, after ojir two worthies had left, 
the following conversation took place, between a 
clergyman and one of his deacons, who had been 
closely observing Alban and Lahm in their efforts 
to make votes for Leblond: 

" I have sometimes thought it strange," said the 
Deacon, " that such characters should be able to 
exert any influence on their fellow men." 

" Men have, in all ages of the world," said the 
clergyman, " been more easily reached through 
their vices than their virtues." 

" That is a dark picture of human nature." 

"It is nevertheless true. The history, of every 
age and country establishes the fact." 

"It is a picture," exclaimed the deacon, "over 
which the heart sickens. You do not mean, I hope, 
that all men are more under the influence of vice 
than virtue ?" 

" No," replied the clergyman. " Heisod said, 
many centuries ago, that the gods had placed la- 
bor before virtue. To be virtuous you must strug- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 249 

gie up stream against wind and current while to 
be vicious is to throw, or unresistingly allow your- 
self to get into the stream and float upon the cur- 
rent without effort. Hence the injunction, " watch 
and pray lest ye enter into temptation. 5 " 

" I have noticed," said the deacon, " that while 
you, and I, and other sober and industrious men, 
are passed by these politicians, without being re- 
garded as possessing any power over our neighbors, 
worth soliciting; while Tom Snooks, Joe Haynes. 
and Dick Bumpers, are courted, treated, and con- 
ferred with. Why is it? They are by no means a 
majority in any community." 

"No," replied the clergyman, " this poor unfor- 
tunate class of men you mention, are not more 
than a tenth of the community, and yet they con- 
trol the other nine-tenths-." 

* ; Can you inform me how this thing is brought 
about?" inquired the deacon. 

;i I am very little of the politician," said the 
clergyman, " yet I have fancied the thing was 
easy of solution. Such men as Snooks, Haynes, 
and Bumpers, with a few kindred spirits generally 
infest every community. They have no charac- 
ters to lose ; and hence they assert, anything and 
everything, without any regard, whatever, to truth. 
Laud one class of candidates to the very clouds, 
while they slander and traduce their opponents in 
most unmeasured terms ; and do it, too, with entire 
impunity, as they are wholly irresponsible. And 



250 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

incredible as it may appear, in process of time this 
class of men will manufacture a public sentiment 
which carries the election. They exert an influ- 
ence upon better men than themselves ; and they, 
in their turn, upon still a better class; and thus, 
until the entire community is permeated. " 

" That reminds me, of the story of Themostocles, 
who said that his little son about three years old, 
governed the people of his State, and his explana- 
tion was, the child governed its mother, she gov- 
erned him and he governed the people." 

"Exactly so," said the clergyman. Hence poli- 
ticians, who are for the most part close observers, 
and well schooled in human nature, secure this 
class of men, and through them secure others they 
could not otherwise reach. Often a few glasses of 
liquor and a little familiarity accomplish the task." 

" What remedy would you suggest for these ills?" 

"The same," replied the clergyman, "that the 
Grecian ought to have adopted with his wife and 
child." 

"What is that?" 

" Sent the child to the nursery and his wife to 
the kitchen, and governed the people himself. Now, 
the great mass of the people ought to send those 
panders to vice, howling to their kennels, and gov- 
ern themselves. Then, and not till then, will they 
cease to have an undue influence." 

During the campaign, Alban, Lahm and Sikes 
had been, more or less, all the time, under the in- 



TIIHE UNJUST SUDGE. 251 

fluence of liquor ; now, that the election was over, 
determined as soon as the season of rejoicing had 
passed, to fall back into the habit of occasional 
dram drinking ; but they found it more difficult to 
return than go forward. 

Numerous ratification meetings, as they called 
them, were held in different parts of the Congres- 
sional District, to all of which Alban and Lahm 
had an invitation, and to each invitation they in- 
variably responded, by being personally present, 
unless the meetings conflicted so as to render at- 
tendance upon all impossible. At these convivial 
meetings, Alban — Judge of the Judicial Circuit. 
composed of the same counties which made up the 
Congressional District, — took the lead, and the 
members of the bar followed. On some of these 
occasions might have been seen Judges and Law- 
yers, office-holders and expectants, editors and 
deacons, grey-headed men and boys, united in the 
mazes of bacchanalian revelry. 

Two considerations would seem to argue against 
attempting a portrait of these drunken rows. The 
public is already too familiar with such scenes ; 
and again, the bar — the van-guard of very many 
virtues- — might not admire the picture. 

Sikes, now out of office and out of employment, 
and sure of one customer, at least, started a small 
doggery, and commenced selling spirituous liquors, 
which he kept in operation, for some two months, 
while his habits of dissipation became more and 



2o2 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

more inveterate. At length his stock of liquors 
began to lessen, and for the purpose of recruiting 
them he procured a horse and wagon and visited 
a neighboring distillery. After tasting the qual- 
ity of a barrel of whiskey, by taking several 
heavy potations from the bung of the cask by 
means of a rye straw, and satisfied it was the 
article he wanted, loaded it upon his wagon. 

True to the instincts of degradation, he must 
now sponge a drink or two more by way of trying 
several other casks, he professed to think he might 
want to buy within the lapse of a few weeks. He 
accordingly had recourse to the straw, wmich he 
used freely upon three or four different kegs, and 
until he reeled ; when he staggered to his wagon, 
and with the aid of the good Samaritan who pre- 
sided over the destinies of the still-house, he got 
in along side his barrel and began beating his 
horse, which evinced more restiveness than com- 
ported with the distiller's notions of Sikes' safety. 

There was now another draft upon the magna- 
nimity of this manufacturer of death. The horse 
must be quieted, which he accordingly did, and 
our hero of the straw went, not on his way rejoic- 
ing, but alternately hallooing, nodding and whip- 
ping his animal^ wmich was possessed of more 
sense than his poor besotted driver, or at least he 
had the merit of sobriety. He had not proceeded 
far, when, in passing down a slight declivity his 
wagon struck a stump and turned over; after 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 253 

rearing and pitching for some time, the htfrse 
finally drew the vehicle off him, but his spirit had 
departed. 

The spirits in the barrel had also departed. — 
The head of the cask as well as Sikes, had been 
driven in, and his lifeless body was swimming in 
alcohol. 

At this moment one of the grocer's best custom- 
ers came up to the scene of disaster, and like the 
bee when its empire is invaded and its comb 
broken, unmindful of the wreck and ruin around 
it, sips the honey. Staggering along he raised 
his hands, and in horror exclaimed, " Oh ! what a 
pity to have it w r asted, and immediately got down 
or rather fell down, and guzzled from a puddle the 
'liquor crimsoned with the blood of its recent 
owner. 

The natural conclusion, and one to which a so- 
ber man would be likely to arrive, is, that so sad 
an accident, induced by intemperance, would have 
caused Alban and Lahm to pause in their mad 
career and reflect. It is said that the soldier upon 
the battle field is made more furious by each addi- 
tional man who falls around him. And such was 
the effect of Sikes' misfortune upon Lahm and 
Alban. While it is easy to account for the in- 
creased madness under the circumstances to which 
we have alluded, of the infuriated soldier, it is be- 
yond the ken of philosophy to give a good and 
sufficient reason for the impetus the tragical end 



254 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

of Sikes gave to the kindred vice of Alban and 
Lahm. 

Lahm now began to neglect his professional as 
well as his official business, and to spend nearly 
all his time lounging about groceries and hotels, 
and thus he would spend weeks without appear- 
ing to know or care what it must necessarily lead 
to in the end. 

" Mr. Lahm," said a personal and political 
friend whom he chanced to meet at one of his pla- 
ces of resort, Ci you must quit drinking or you will 
go over the dam." 

" Well," replied Lahm, " then I shall probably 
go over." 

« Why should you," exclaimed his friend. 

" I doubt very much whether I could quit if 1 
were to make the effort." 

" To doubt, is to be damned," said his friend, 
M and," continued he, " there are many things 
more difficult of accomplishment than abandon- 
ing your cups, and to the performance of which, if 
I should say you were unequal, you would think I 
under estimated your abilities. ' What man has 
done man can do,"' I learned in the nursery. You 
can do it if you think so. But so long as you are 
suspended between hope and fear, reformation is 
impossible. You must draw the sword and throw 
away the scabbard. You must cross the river and 
cut down the bridge over which you have passed, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 255 

after the manner of Gen. Houston at San Jacinto, 
and then you can fight as becomes a man." 

Lahm interrupted him by remarking that decla- 
mation and action were as different as could be 
well imagined. That it was easy to theorize and 
form plans for life, but to carry out those plans, to 
reduce them to practice, was entirely another and 
more difficult matter. " You, ' continued he, 
" know but little about the force of this habit. — 
* ^Yhen I would do good evil is present with me.'" 
And then many there are who instead of reaching 
forth the helping hand, are pushing me deeper and 
yet deeper into the slough. Men who are not im- 
pelled by this irresistible habit to drink, are fre- 
:itly encouraging me and extending invitations 
without its occurring to them that I need their aid 
and assistance to avoid the pit falls that are await- 
ing my slow but certain approach — that lead me 
to the haunts of dissipation and fix the habit 
more and more indelibly." 

" Regard such men as your most deadly ene- 
mies, and stand aloof from them." said his friend. 

" That," replied Lahm, "is easier to say than 
do." 

" No, more easily," exclaimed bis friend, when 
your reputation, your all, your very life, temporal 
and eternal, is at stake. Continue this drinking 
two months and you are a dead man. Formerly a 
man could drink for very many years and still 
have some constitution left; but the drugged and 



\J56 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

adulterated liquors of the present day do their 
work of death with accelerated facility." 

"i know it all," returned Lahm. 

" And yet," said his friend, iC you will stand in- 
active while fiery billow r s roll beneath." 

" How am I to extinguish them," enquired Lahm. 

" How ! why, be a man." 

" I once was a man," mournfully said Lahm. 
; -but"— 

"But what;" quickly exclaimed his friend. — 
" Cross the Rubicon, and destroy all hope of re- 
treat, and be a man again." 

" No," said Lahm, " it is now too late to talk 
about crossing ; I am already in the heart of the 
enemies' country- — surrounded — supplies cut off — 
am without hope. I can now only capitulate ;V 
and added, " you are now where I once was — a 
moderate drinker. Let me admonish you to stop 
where you are, lest you become w T hat I am. Three 
years ago there w r as less probability of my be- 
coming a miserable drunken bloat, than there is 
now of your being such. God may have hardened 
my heart and weakened my resolution for the pur- 
pose of giving you and others the benefit of my 
example." 

" God has had less to do with it than the enemy 
of souls," said his friend. " You appear to have 
profited little from the fate of Sibley, Sikes, and 
others." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 257 

" And," replied Lahm, "you may be benefited 
as little by mine. ' Let him who thinketh he stand- 
eth take heed lest he fall." ' 

His friend, considering further expostulation 
useless, left him to his apparent doom. 

Lahm continued for several weeks to drink, and 
the only change observed was that he grew worse 
and more hopeless. He now determined to visit 
his relatives living in another State, and was soon 
on his way. Previous to leaving he provided him- 
self with a quantity of brandy, some of which he 
carried in his carpet sack, to protect him against 
the contingency of passing through a temperance 
region, where the article could not be had. Hav- 
it with him, he drank freely, but succeeded in 
reaching his former home, where the entreaties, 
tears and prayers of a pious mother were alike 
expended upon him in vain. He remained a few 
days, but it appeared less like home than upon 
any former visit. It had ceased to be " home 
sweet home." His friends were even more kind 
than usual. Every little attention and every kind 
act that could possibly contribute to his happiness 
and comfort, were done with the object so appa- 
rent that he could not but observe it. In the midst 
of this kindness a sense of degradation and un- 
worthiness w T ould steal across his mind and mar 
his peace. 

Finding himself unable to enjoy home, he pre- 
pared to return. As he was about to leave, his 
17 



258 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

aged and infirm mother took him by the hand and 
said, while the tears like rain, fell from her almost 
sightless eyes, 'My son, promise me before 
heaven, you will quit drinking." 

" No, mother!" he replied, " I can't." I would 
break the pledge if I made it. You taught me in 
infancy the baseness of falsehood, and J have 
never forgotten it." 

" Would to God," sobbed the mother, " I had 
taught you an additional lesson — the folly of drink- 
ing." 

Lahm was too much affected to make any re- 
ply. His mother again said, " Won't you make 
the promise." 

Lahm, too full of .emotion to answer, shook his 
head. "Then," continued the mother, "I shall 
never see you again ; never, never, shall I again 
behold my son !" and returned to the house in an 
agony of grief, while he stepped into the stage 
and was off. 

He now appeared to have cut himself loose . 
from all sense of shame; though several genteel 
ladies were in the coach, he would in their pres- 
ence take from his pocket his flask, and drink free- 
ly several times in the course of an hour; and 
continued this course until some time the next 
day, when he was seized with a fit of delirium tre- 
mens ; and while in this condition he would ex- 
claim in the language of David, " Deliver me Q 
my God ! from the hand of the wicked." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 259 

And again he would say, " Deliver me not over 
to the will of my enemies !" " Save, oh God ! or 
I perish." 

Moderating, he would utter all kinds of incon- 
gruities — disconnected and broken sentences — 
when suddenly he rose, opened the door of the 
coach and sprang out, and w 7 ent howling into a 
dense forest of many thousand acres, owned by 
distant speculators; while the coach proceeded on 
to the next station some three miles farther, where 
the people were notified of what had happened. ( 

During the afternoon of the same day a rigid 
search was instituted, and incessantly kept up 
until he was found, on the third day after the oc- 
currence with his lower extremities in a small 
rivulet, with his head and upper part of the body 
upon the sloaping bank, lifeless. He was convey- 
ed to the station where his trunk had been left ; 
upon opening w 7 hich, letters from his mother dis- 
closed the residence of his parents, to which place 
his body was sent. His trunk contained money 
sufficient to defray the expense. 

A few days after the above occurrence, the Her- 
ald, a newspaper which our readers will recollect, 
came out at the time of the Jones' difficulty against 
the temperance movement, and charged that it 
was a trick of the opposite political party for the 
purpose of getting into power; in a long, leading 
article, noticed the death of Lahm — a portion of 
which we will copy to show with what facility a 
17* 



260 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

political editor can blow hot and cold under a 
slight change of circumstances: 

•'It is with feelings of the deepest pain and re- 
gret, that we are called upon to record the demise 
of our worthy fellow citizen, Mr. Lahm. 

• When sorrows come, they, come not single spies 
But in battalions." ' 

'•Within the last few months we have noticed 
the death of Sibley, Sikes, and several others less 
conspicuous, and now that of Mr. Lahm — all from 
the same cause, this accursed intemperance. It 
appears to love a shining mark. It is striking 
down the best men among us. There are scores 
of men in this community who have not yet fallen 
victims, that is, they are not dead, but so far as 
every thing but breathing is concerned, they are 
to all intents and purposes, dead. They are dead 
to their own welfare — dead to the interests and 
well-being of their families — dead to society — 
dead, many of them, to shame, and must soon 
stop breathing." 

i; Is there no remedy, i no balm in Gilead?" If 
this destructive vice is not arrested, 

c Nest age will see 

A race more profligate than we." ' 

" It is not in the nature of this vice to be sta- 
tionary. It must either advance or retrograde. — 
Then the matter is narrowed down to this — shall 
it go forward or backward? We cannot as an hon- 
est man and a good citizen, both of which we de- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 261 

sire to be, advocate its advancement; therefore we 
must be in favor of its retrogression. We cannot 
be for and against it at the same time. And hence 
to-day, this very hour, we nail the Maine Liquor 
Law flag to our mast, and 'sink or swim, live or 
die, survive or perish, 7 we are for the Law," 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Aii open foe may prove a curse, 

But a pretended friend is worse.--- Gay. 

The influences had taken a most happy turn, 
and it was now sanguinely hoped by the philan- 
thropic, that through the magic of this sudden 
change, Judge Alban would be saved from what 
had previously appeared to be his inevitable doom 7 
a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's eternity. — 
But there was littte hope for a man whose bosom 
did not contain one generous impulse, one noble 
sentiment, one manly feeling ; who was a stran- 
ger to virtuous indignation, whose heartbeat with 
its every throb in unison with vice and immo- 
rality ; the springs to whose policy were oppres- 
sion, cowardice, hypocrisy, ingratitude and decep- 
tion ! He heeded not the influences around him, 
nor the solemn warnings which seemed to speak 
from the graves of Sibley, Sikes and Lahm, and 
no sooner was he out of one excess than he 
plunged into another and still another, until scenes 
of debauchery and dissipation seemed to be the 
only element in which he could " breathe, move 
or have his being." 

A few weeks after the death of Lahm, Alban 
was loafing in the office of a lawyer whom we 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 263 

>>hall designate Yellow Coat, a cognoman he re- 
ceived from wearing a yellow jeans coat, for the 
double purpose of making more palpable his con- 
tempt for the aristocracy and that of winning 
upon the affections of the dear people, whom he 
constantly studied to deceive by the wiles, arts 
and appliances of the heartless demagogue. 

"Judge," said Yellow Coat, " are you aware 
that a bill has already passed the United States 
Senate which contemplates a division of our State 
into two Districts ?" 

Judge Alban, stupefied from the excesses of the 
previous night was in a state of semi-repose, par- 
tially opened his eyes and drawled out — 

" What is that you are talk— talking about — 
about there?" 

" Our State is about to be divided and we will 
have two United States' Courts instead of one," 
repeated Yellow Coat. 

"Would it benefit you or myself any, if there 
were twenty new courts," responded Alban. 

" I am not so certain," said Yellow Coat, " but 
one might benefit us essentially." 

" How !" exclaimed Alban. " If I can be taught 
to believe that it may result to my benefit, then I 
shall feel an interest in the movement; if not, of 
course I shall be indifferent. My motto is touch 
nothing unless it pay well." 

" That's my rule of action," said Yellow Coat; 
- look out for number one, and let every body else 



264 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

take care of himself. But then might you not. 
Judge, by some management procure an appoint- 
ment?" 

" To what ?" exclaimed Alban. 

" Why, to a Judgeship, and that too, for life," 
said Yellow Coat. 

" That life feature I like," said Alban. " This 
being dependent upon the vulgar herd for posi- 
tion, constantly living in dread of their disappro- 
bation — paid this crawling, creeping and cringing 
to the mass for favor, is, and always has been 
greatly at war with my feelings ; but then, I sup- 
pose, if the district should be made, the bench is 
entirely beyond my reach." 

" Why should it be ?" said Yellow Coat ; " cer- 
tainly with judicious management you may se- 
cure the appointment." 

" Do you think so ?" said Alban. 

" I most assuredly do," replied Yellow Coat. 

" But," continued Judge Alban, " who is to 
manage this matter ? We are remote from Wash- 
ington City, and in order that it be reduced to a 
certainty some person must go there immediately, 
and every appliance within the range, ay, be- 
yond the range of convenience, brought to bear 
upon the President and the appointing power, that 
is necessary to effect the object, and that will re- 
quire time and money." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. ^05 

" All that will be wholly unnecessary," replied 
Yellow Coat. " It can all be accomplished by 
writing to a few friends in Congress." 

11 This thing of writing to friends about matter? 
in which you and not they are interested, is a bu- 
siness in which I have long since ceased to have 
any confidence," exclaimed Alban. 

" Oh, you must second the movement by money. 
Money is the fulcrum, the lever, and the whole 
moving pow r er. That must accompany our exer- 
tion at the proper time," said Yellow Coat; "and 
now, Judge, continued he, " w r e are so made and 
constituted that we must learn every thing w T e 
know 7 — we can know nothing by intuition. Now, 
while you have been acquainting yourself with the 
occult mysteries of science, and fathoming the 
profundities of ancient and modern legal lore, you 
have neglected the less abstruse science of politi- 
cal intriguing, and you must therefore place your- 
self completely under the control and manage- 
ment of myself and a very few other friends ; we 
will keep you constantly advised as to the part 
you must play in the drama. It will probably be 
necessary for you to procure the recommendation 
of the Governor, Legislature, and other State offi- 
cers." 

" You have been my friend — my warm and de- 
voted friend — while Lahm and other scamps have 
been dow r n upon me ; I will therefore leave the 
matter wholly in your hands," said the Judge. 



866 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" Certainly, certainly," said Yellow Coat ; I will 
however make one suggestion, and that is, you 
must have some of the needful ready for emergen- 
cies." 

" I will endeavor to," replied the Judge. 

A few days after the above conversation, Yel- 
low Coat called upon the Judge for the needful, 

saying he was upon his way to the city of C , 

for the purpose of obtaining the signatures of the 
dignitaries of the State — procured his money and 
proceeded upon his way. 

But quite as soon as Yellow Coat could reach 
the seat of government and return, we find him 
with Judge Alban, saying he could not procure 
an endorsement of his honor the Judge, until he 
would first resign the office he held, after which 
they would all join in recommending the Judge to 
the favorable notice of the President and Cabinet. 

Immediately after Yellow Coat met the Judge, 
and before he communicated to him h^'s want of 
success, he swaggered and shrugged up his should- 
ers with an affected involuntary shiver, and with a 
look and blink peculiarly his own, as he threw a 
massive quantity of the weed from his cadaverous 
countenance, invited the Judge across the street 
to liquor up, to see w T hich, was to comprehend it 
and its objects; but with accuracy and justness to 
describe the indications of perfidy evinced in his 
swagger, in his countenance and demeanor, would 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 267 

require more than the pen of an Irving, or the 
pencil of a Hogarth. 

After Yellow Coat and the Judge had been qui- 
etly seated in a genteel Saloon and drank a bran- 
dy smash, Yellow Coat without informing the 
Judge of his bad luck, but upon the contrary con- 
stantly avoiding any allusion to the matter, called 
in a hot whiskey punch — still trembling or affect- 
ing to shiver from the cold. Nor was it until the 
whiskey punch was swallowed, and the Judge in 
turn called in the liquor two or three times, that 
the tremulous Yellow Coat ventured to mention 
to the drunken dignitary the unfavorable report of 
his mission, taking care to preface it with the re- 
mark that he would immediately return to the seat 
of government upon his errand of kindness. 

Alban by no means sanguine when sober, would 
not at this time have given a groat to have had 
success insured, without ceremony or further in- 
quiry wrote out his resignation, and requested the 
governor to appoint Esq. Yellow Coat his suc- 
cessor. 

Yellow Coat, now with the resignation and re- 
commendation of Alban in his pocket, forthwith 
started for the seat of government, from whence 
in due time he returned with his own commission, 
but without any very satisfactory account of the ac- 
tion of the Governor, the Legislature and other 
State officers, in relation to the appointment of 
Judge Alban. 



2G8 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Soon after Yellow Coat's return, Alban called 
at his office without finding him in, and then at 
his residence, but he sent the judge word he was 
not at home. Finally, however, the Judge met 
him; but, as neither Alban nor Yellow Coat has 
reported the result of that interview, we are una- 
ble to give it to our readers ; but this much we do 
know — Judge Alban called upon Yellow Coat, of- 
ten ; indeed, every day, and sometimes several 
times in the course of a day; w 7 e don't know cer- 
tainly, but suppose to listen to the delusive and 
hypocritical professions of old Yellow Coat, until 
finally the new made judge, as we have been in- 
formed, and verily believe, grew impatient under 
the annoyance, when he is said to have made this 
laconic remark — 

" Go home, Alban, and be patient! This thing 
can't be accomplished in a day, nor can it be done 
in weeks." 

At this meeting, Alban, we are told, w r as sober, 
and as a sense of his true situation stole over his 
demented mind he fixed his eye — vacant from va- 
grancy — upon the new Judge, and exclaimed with 
a tremulous voice, in tones that wrung tears from 
the eyes of the callous old Yellow Coat — " Et tu 
Brute ! " 

It was not long until the news went through the 
town, as upon the wings of the wind, that old Yel- 
low Coat was in tears ! 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 269 

" III tears ! Yellow Coat in tears ! " was the ex- 
clamation caught up and carried from one to an- 
other, until the adjoining hills reverberated the 
echo, " Old Yellow Coat is in tears ! " All was 
commotion — some running in one direction, some 
in another, rendering collisions unavoidable. Con- 
sternation sat upon every countenance. While 
some had old Yellow Coat in one kind of catas- 
trophe, others had him in a different trouble ; none 
seemed to know what was the true character of 
the difficulty. 

" What on earth is the matter ?" inquired one. 

" Old Yellow Coat is crying !" shouted several 
voices. 

An old gentleman clasped his hands, cocked 
his sinister eye, threw his head to one side, and 
said, " Young gentlemen, you ought not to triffie 
with old age." 

" True as preaching ! " was the reply. 

" Is this world, indeed, coming to an end !" ex- 
claimed the old man. 

" What state of things could have drawn tears 
from old Yellow Coat ? " cried others. 

"Some great public misfortune!" ejaculated 
some one. 

"No," responded another, " No public calamity 
could move old Yaller Coat. It must be some pri- 
vate loss. If the world were on fire and he and 
his interest secure, he could set amid the 'wreck 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

of matter and the crush of worlds,' with entire 
composure, nor shed a tear." 

i; Judge Alban was now out of office, without 
hope of again occupying an official station. 

'• Deserted in his utmost need 
By those his former bounty fed." 

" He returned home, now that he was betrayed 
by one in whom he reposed unbounded confidence 
— threw himself upon a lounge and wept as if hi? 
head had been a fountain of tears. " I am," so- 
liloquized he, " now retiring where I shall have the 
pleasure of remaining for the balance of my life. 
There is some gratification in knowing 

'-' 1 am not now in fortune's power ; 
He that is down can sink no lower," 

" Oh! what a wrong I have suffered at the hand? 
of that Yellow Coat! What a consummation of 
selfishness! What a sorded wretch! How little 
of the ' milk of human kindness' is in his composi- 
tion ! How applicable the lines of Byron to 
Southey — 

" Thy love is lust, thy friendship is all a cheat ; 
Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit." 

His professions of friendship, now that I have had 
an opportunity of testing them, have proven empty. 
I ought to have discovered, long ago, that he wa? 
hypocritical, for never has he been known to have 
electioneered for any individual but once, and that 
he regretted, saving old Yellow Coat, who is hi.< 
favorite candidate and for whom he plays a strong- 
hand and makes vigorous exertion. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE 271 

" I have frequently been told that Lahm, poor 
fellow, whom I've treated very harshly, and actually 
drove from the bar and probably into dissipation, 
was a better man — had more heart and head, too. 
than this selfish, cunning, deceptious " Yellow 
Coat ; yet I have never, until now, believed it. Cer- 
tain it is I've not studied my true interest in allow- 
ing that conglomeration of every vice to rule and 
control me upon the bench. I now clearly per- 
ceive what I ought to have as clearly seen long 
since, that all his aims and purposes were pro- 
foundly selfish ; and, that in extending to him so 
much favor, I have repelled and disgusted his 
brethren of the bar,' and, as a consequence, am 
now friendless. 

i 
" Had T but seuv'd pay God with half the zeal 

Iserv'd my king, he would not in mine age 

Have left me naked."" 

What am I to do ? What can I do ? Go back to 
the bar and there be amply paid, by those I have 
oppressed, with compound interest ? This retribu- 
tive justice, they have already been talking about. 
I must confess I do not like. I can not — I will not 
return to the bar." 

Misery is the legitimate fruit of folly and crime, 
and Alban was now as miserable as his previous 
life had been foolish and criminal. He had passed 
through a little over two-thirds of his three score 
and ten, and had treasured nothing but error and 



272 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

sin — had a worn out body — a premature old age — 
a desolate soul, inhabited alone by ruthless remorse. 
His indiscretions, his follies, and his crimes, now 
arrayed themselves like frightful spectres before 
the bar of his- conscience, and he sighed for the 
privilege of again enjoying the innocent and happy 
days of childhood and youth, that he might again 
start upon the path of integrity, and he exclaimed, 
" If youthful blood were again coursing my veins — 
if manly vigor was again mine — if again I was 
embarking upon the ocean of life, I would write 
upon my chart — ay, all over my chart — in con- 
spicuous characters, ' Avoid the flatterer, as you 
would the touch of contagion,' for, in the honied 
accents of flattery is the poison of the deadly upas. 
From the flattery and professions of old Yellow 
Coat, I had supposed he would have gone to the 
very door of perdition, and incurred the risk of 
making good his retreat without having old Pluto 
foreclose his mortgage upon him, if thereby he 
could have conferred upon me even a slight favor. 
But alas, alas ! how has his conduct comported 
with his pretensions.*' 

But a new element of excitement was about to 
pervade the thoughts, feelings, affections, head, 
and heart, of Judge Alban. As he closed the 
above soliloquy he rose from the lounge and seated 
himself by the table, upon which the mail-boy had 
just thrown a number of letters, papers, and peri- 
odicals, from which he picked up a paper, and the 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 273 

first thing upon which his eye rested, was an arti- 
cle from which we copy the following: 

" A writer in the True American asks the im- 
portant question, ' Have we a Stuart among us;"' 
and then gives an account of the discovery of a 
claimant to the British Monarchy in the person of 
one Charles Edward Stuart, Compte D'Albani. — 
It is claimed the Compte is a son of Cardinal 
York who died in eighteen hundred and seven, 
when it was supposed the issue of James II of 
England was extinct." 

As Judge Alhan closed the above paragraph, 
he sprang to his feet and exclaimed, " Ye gods ! 
that's better than perfidious friends and Judge- 
ships that can't be reached. 

" I'll show Charles Edward that there are other 
Stewarts who have claims upon Windsor Castle, 
and w T ho will take a hand in determining the ques- 
tion whether ' a stranger fills the Stuart Throne." ' 

u Now, the only thing which dampens my ardor 
in this struggle for a throne is, first, the terrible 
picture drawn of the Stuart family, by Dickens, in 
his history of England ; and, secondly, the want 
of the means necessary to enter the arena and 
oust Queen Vic. But that is all counteracted by 
the contemplation of the figure I shall make upon 
the British throne, among the dignitaries of that 
vast empire, upon whose dominions the sun never 
sets. 



274 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

"My -dignity and splendid personal appearance 
would there be appreciated ; I would not there be 
liable to have my dignity insulted by such puppies 
as Lahm, nor my rights invaded by such treach- 
erous wretches as Old Yellow Coat;'' and he 
laughed outright : but it is said by our informant 
to have been a most sinister giggle ; anything but 
a real, joyous laugh, directly from the regions of 
a virtuous heart. 

" To whom can I go and consult as to my fu- 
ture plans of operation ; would to God I now had 
a friend in whom I could repose implicit confi- 
dence. But where on this broad earth shall I find 
a friend ! Until this base perfidy of Yellow Coat. 1 
could have said — 

e Thou art the friend 

To whom the shadows of long years extend l ,J ' 

but now, alas ! sad, bitter experience compels me 
to take up the song — 

' The friendships of the world are oft 
Confed'racie3 in vice, or leagues in pleasure." 

" Yellow Coat can new have no interest in my 
future welfare. No, he cares not who occupies 
the ' throne of the Stuarts." ' It would afford him 
quite as much pleasure to see the present incum- 
bent there, as to see me (and my posterity, I had 
almost said, but alas ! I shall leave none) — occu- 
pying the inheritance of our ancestry. The elys- 
ian bowers of his hope are tenanted alone by 
self. Had I possessed sagacity sufficient to have 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 275 

made that discovery years ago, then would he not 
have grown beyond his natural dimensions. 

" What a swaggering, all things to all men, dem- 
agogue, he is. Among Catholics he would acknowl- 
edge the apostolic succession of the Pope. Among 
Protestants, he would call that church dignitary, 
Anti-Christ. Among Mohammedans, he would 
sing hosannas to the Prophet. Among Mormons, 
he would deify Joe Smith — having direct reference 
in every thing he would say and do, to self- 
aggrandizement." 

While Alban was in the utmost doubt and per- 
plexity as to the source from which he was to de- , 
rive the material aid, a wag from the Emerald Isle 
who had regarded the Judge for some time as the 
butt of ridicule, having had an intimation of AI- 
ban's new born aspirations, met him upon the 
street and informed him he had recently received 
some money from Scotland, a small portion of an 
immense estate, which he inherited upon the de- 
mise of a wealthy old uncle; and that he was 
then attempting to negotiate with an attorney to 
accompany him to that country. The Judge could 
wait no longer, but exclaimed, " 'Squire Edward 
M'Gugin, I am just the man you want ; I have no 
doubt the boys will be after you for this job, but 
you will need an old head." 

"Yes" replied M'Gugin, as he abruptly left 
Alban, " I have numerous applications," 

18* 



276 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Judge Alban immediately returned home in 
great haste, and informed his wife that upon that 
evening he intended to have Mr. and Mrs. M'Gu- 
gin to tea. 

" What !" replied his wife, " Ed., the Irish dray- 
man." 

" Yes, certainly ;" answered the Judge. 

"Why, pray," said Mrs. Alban, "what freak 
has come upon you, now ! You have always re- 
garded such men as mere ;jerfs — as few removes 
from the animal." 

" Well, well," said the Judge, " I am aware of 
.all that ; but I want to use Ed. a little. He has a 
matter I wish to secure, and a number of young 
lawyers are after him. It's true they are mere 
boys, yet Ed. may allow himself to be persuaded 
to retain them." 

u But you bound from one extreme to its oppo- 
site, with wonderful facility," said Sirs. Alban. — 
" You usually look upon what you call the vulgar, 
with a kind of unutterable contempt, and now 
you are about to hug one of the most repulsive to 
your bosom." 

" It would be very grateful to my feelings if you 
possessed a " wonderful facility" for regarding 
my w r ishes." 

" What business of importance can that vaga- 
bond Ed. have to excite the emulation of legal 
gentlemen?" replied Mrs. Alban. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 27? 

*• Humph ! wife, that shows how little women 
know about matters and things. Why, Ed. is 
probably the wealthiest man in town. An old un- 
cle in Scotland has left him an immense fortune, " 

" Immense nonsense," retorted Mrs. Alban. — 
" Ed. is not worth a dime, and you will find that it 
is an immense hoax he is practicing upon your 
honor;" and added, by way of mollifying his feel- 
ings, " I believe you are partial to the title, 'Your 
Honor." ' 

"Oh! fudge," said the Judge, "let me have 
some paper, pen, and ink." 

As soon as he was furnished with the materials 
for writing, he wrote the following note : 

"Mr. and Mrs. Alban's compliments to Mr. and 
Mrs. M'Gugin, with the hope that they may have 
the pleasure of their society this evening, at seven 
o'clock." 

The Judge now folded very neatly, the note, 
upon the back of which, in a delicate hand, he 
wrote " Edward M'Gugin, Esq., and Lady." 

"'Will you please to take Mrs. Alban out of 
your note ? What pray, do I know about Mr. and 
Mrs. M'Gugin?" 

"What is written, is written," said the Judge. 

" Why, Judge," said his wife, " this thing will 
get out, and even the boys upon the street will be 
squaking at you. Let me urge you this once to 
hearken to my counsel." 



278 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" Will you allow me to do as I think advisable, 
in the premises?" said the Judge. 

" You will, whether I allow you or not," respon- 
ded Mrs. Alban ; but added, " I am unaccustomed 
to waiting upon such cattle." 

" Consult my interest this once," said Alban, 
,; and you may live to see the day when you will 
acknowledge my wisdom and sagacity." 

iJ I will live to see you laughed at extensively, 
and that will be about to-morrow or the following 
day, at farthest, as the bubble will soon burst." 

The Judge unwilling to trust his note in the 
hands of a servant, under the control of Mrs. Al- 
ban, lest she might have imparted infection and 
want of confidence — carried it himself. 

When the Judge reached a small hovel in the 
suburbs of the town, where he supposed M'Gugin 
resided, he knocked for admission. Soon the door 
opened, and a female riot remarkable for the neat- 
ness of her person, was upon the threshold. 

The Judge bowed and said, " Have I the pleas- 
ure of being in the presence of Mrs. M'Gugin ;" 
and added, " is the 'Squire in?" 

"'Who did you ask for?" 

" For the 'Squire," replied Alban. 

" I don't know a man of that name." 

" I want to see Mr. Edward M'Gugin." 

" Oh ! said she, ". you want to see Ned, I sup- 
pose." 



I 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 279 

M Yes, Madam, I wish to see 'Squire M'Gugin," 
very blandly replied the Judge. 

Edward had inducted his wife into the myste- 
ries of the hoax, and instructed her to say to 
Judge Alban that he had just stepped into the 
bank for the purpose of depositing fifteen or twen- 
ty thousand dollars — which she did with great 
adroitness. 

u Then," exclaimed the Judge, " the 'Squire has 
drawn a considerable portion of his legacy." 

" Only a small amount," was the ready response. 

" Sufficient to pay expenses in getting the bal- 
ance," exclaimed Alban, a3 he threw the note of 
invitation down at her feet, and broke at the top 
of his speed like a tiger upon a fresh trail of 
blood, for " 'Squire M'Gugin" and the bank. But 
before he came up to " 'Squire M'Gugin," the 
bubble had burst, though not until a score or more, 
(and many of them young lawyers,) had been let 
into the secret and who had been watching his 
movements upon the street, enjoyed a fine 
laugh at the expense of the unfortunate digni- 
tary. 

Flattery being the only avenue through which 
Alban could be approached, he fell into the too 
common error of estimating others by his own ca- 
pacity for the enjoyment of this nostrum of fools 
and villains ; and hence he invariably attempted 
to accomplish his purposes through a free and libe- 
ral use of the article which banished him at once 



~8Q THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

from the society of honest, sensible, refined and 
Well-bred men, and threw him exclusively among 
kindred spirits, where he could enjoy his favorite 
aliment without stint or measure. 

To the sins which, as we have seen, covered 
Alban as with a mantle, he added others which 
involved the most sacred interest of man as well 
as woman, and would have enabled him to pass 
par excellence in the regions of Mecca and Salt 
Lake. 

The throne of the Stuarts which excited him 
when first it engrossed his thoughts, had now less 
attractions to this distinguished branch of a dis- 
tinguished but fallen house, than the flavor of a 
mint julep, or the fumes of a whiskey punch. 

But the avenger of virtue and injured innocence 
was in his wake, and close upon his heels, and he 
was smitten after the manner of Jehorum. As 
he staggered home from a scene of midnight de- 
bauchery, upon a steep embankment, thrown 
across a ravine, not far distant, and leading to his 
residence, " falling headlong he burst asunder in 
the midst, and all his bow r els gushed out." 

While we detain a moment to drop the sympa- 
thetic tear over the ashes of our departed hero, 
we must be permitted to enter our most solemn 
protest against the indiscriminate censure society 
attaches to deviations from the path of virtue, 
w r hile it seldom stops to investigate the circum- 
stances which surround the miserable victim of 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 281 

vice and folly. ]f closely scrutinized by the eye 
of wisdom as well as charity, how often would 
this unfortunate class of our fellow- men, deserve 
and receive, instead of our censure and condemna- 
tion, our pity„and heartfelt sympathy. Could we 
probe the incipient stages of vice and folly as 
well as the more confirmed and inexorable crimi- 
nals, we would find connected with them many, 
often very many, extenuating circumstances. 

We have great confidence in the potency of 
circumstances in shaping the destiny, politically, 
intellectually, pecuniarily and morally, of man- 
kind ; and those circumstances would occasion- 
ally seem to be beyond the control of the indi- 
vidual, by which his happiness and character are 
moulded. 

Oppression engenders hatred in the oppressed, 
therefore Alban had no associates among the 
younger members of the bar. His want of judi- 
cial courtesy, ay, more, his judicial tyranny, had 
driven him entirely from the society of the bar, 
except Yellow Coat, for w f hose tender mercies he 
had at this time but little relish. The allurements 
of an enchanted home were not his ; no interest- 
ing gambols of young innocents, invited him from 
scenes of dissipation and debauchery to the bliss 
of the domestic hearth. Excluded from the com- 
munion of those between whom and himself thers 
was some congeniality — without an opportunity 
of exercising the more amiable feelings of the lm> 






'v82 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

man heart around the altar of domestic happi- 
ness, he was in a favorable condition to fall in 
with the proposals of vice : hence for several con- 
secutive weeks previous to the death of Alban, he 
was reeling and staggering from one doggery to 
another. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



— She bore herself 



So gently, that the 1 illy on the stalk 
Bends not so easily its dewey head. 

Percival. 

Jones returned home from the disgraceful scene 
where we left him, and having now some leisure, 
was, for days and days in succession, constantly 
under the influence of liquor — seldom so as to reel 
and stagger; but, notwithstanding his free use of 
aromatics, Mrs. Jones could invariably detect upon 
his breath, the slightest indulgence, yet he was 
quite unconscious of her skill. 

" A little word in kindness spoken, 
A smile, or a sympathizing tear, 
Has often healed the heart that's droken." 

And the poet might have added, " And saved the 
heart that is wedded to vice and folly. Such was 
her course. She had resolved to win him back by 
kindness. 

His habits now became shamefully irregular — 
frequently twelve, one, and two, in the morning, 
would find him in haunts of dissipation ; but when 
he made his appearance at his unhappy home, he 
would offer some fictitious apology for his absence, 
which was always received with a smile and in 



284 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

kindness by his wife, who never retired to rest un- 
til after his return. It soon began to make inroads 
upon her health, which was perceived by her hus- 
band, always tender and indulgent, who insisted 
she should retire at her usual time. 

" And have you come cold, and perhaps hungry,'' 
said she. " I could not think of that." 

Coming home one morning, he saw the light in 
the sitting room, as usual, and curious to know how 
his wife whiled away the tedious hours, softly step- 
ped to a window and, through the crevices in the 
shutters, he saw her in apparent deep devotion, 
but could hear nothing except an occasional sob. 
After some moments, he walked up to the door and 
entered, near which she met him as usual, all kind- 
ness, without evincing the slightest dissatisfaction, 
or trouble. 

Jones took a seat near the fire, in a more thought- 
ful mood than he had, for some time previously, 
evinced. Presently, a warm cup of tea was 
upon the stand and placed before him. It was 
more than he could endure without emotion, which 
he chose not to exhibit, and accordingly left the 
room to give vent to his pent up feelings. After 
some fifteen minutes he returned, but partook 
sparingly of the tea, and soon retired. 

The following evening, Judge Jones remained at 
home till about eight, when he took his hat and 
remarked to his wife, he would try to return sooner 
thafevening than formerly ; for which she thanked 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 285 

him very kindly. Instead of going down street he 
took his old position at the window. 

Soon after his departure, she opened the family 
bible and read a chapter or two, and then kneeled 
down, and again he beheld her engaged in prayer. 
She was not far from the window, where he stood 
a silent spectator of the (to him) imposing scene. 
He could distinctly hear her, in a tremulous voice, 
but with great pathos, say — 

" Lord lay not this sin to his charge — 6 snatch 
him as a brand from the burning.' Restore him 
to sobriety. Thou hast endowed him with much 
talent. Oh God, forbid that he bury it." 

He could only catch an occasional sentence, 
some of which we have given above; but he was 
conquered. He stepped upon the threshold of the 
door and entered, after an absence of nearly an 
hour. She met him with a countenance beaming 
with joy, and exclaimed, " Why, my dear, you are 
home early this evening. " 

k * Not so early as I shall be to-morrow evening," 
he replied ; and continued, * It is all over. You 
have conquered me, and I am myself again." 

She threw her arms~around him, and cried aloud 
from very joy. 

"I am," exclaimed Judge Jones, "from this mo- 
ment, a 'Maine Law ? man, come what may." 

They took a seat by the fire, and while she was 
in extacies he was sombre and thoughtful. In a 



286 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

few moments he turned and looked her full in the 
face, as he said, " You knew it all, then ?" 

She smiled as she nodded, and said : " Gray tells 
us — 

"Where ignorance is bliss 5 tis folly to be wise." 

He quickly replied, that a greater man than 
Gray has said — 

" He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty." • 

With a sweet voice and a smiling countenance, 
she said, " The wise man from whom you have 
just quoted, says, ' Wine is a mocker, strong drink 
is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not 
wise.' I knew you could not long be deceived. 
You have too much mind for that." 

" But," returned he, u why did you not scold, get 
mad, and smash things ? " 

" That would have done no good, and might 
have done much harm." 

" I think that is likely — your course was the 
better." 

She was well acquainted with the Judge's vir- 
tues as well as his imperfections. Now that he had 
determined to quit, she felt he could not be driven 
from his purpose ; and, therefore, conversed with 
him freely, and ventured to enquire how the sud- 
den change came. 

He replied that he was seldom ignorant of what 
was going on around him. 

She did not fully comprehend him, and enquired 
how she was to understand him. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 287 

He replied, " You have saved me." And, after 
musing a few moments, lie exclaimed, "what a 
fate I have escaped ! " When I look back, now 
that I am sober, and not excited, how I shudder. 
Oh, what a perilous race I was running ! How 
few that enter upon that course, stop short of the 
goal — ruin and death." 

" Since your unfortunate Hamlin trouble, I have 
been, during my every waking hour, (and my 
sleeping ones have been few) brooding over your 
dangers, but I have never despaired of your ulti- 
mate return to virtue. 

" How much I am indebted to you. " 

" No," said she ; " but on the contrary, how 
many ten thousand obligations I am under to you, 
my natural protector, for turning your back upon 
a most seductive vice, which, when persisted in. 
must end in wreck and ruin." 

Mrs. Jones, that night, retired to pleasant slum- 
bers without any dread of the future. 

Next morning who should make his appearance 
but Leblond ? Neither knew of the change that 
had taken place in the other. Eachjiowever soon 
discovered that his friend was perfectly sober, and 
free from the influence of liquor, and it was what 
could not have been said of either for many months 
previous to their recent reformation. 

Our two friends were soon engaged in conver- 
sation upon the fate of Sikes, Lahm, Sibley and 
Aiban. When alluding to Sibley, Leblond was 



288 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

affected to tears, and paid a handsome tribute to 
his memory. 

• % I," said Leblond, " am now in easy circumstan- 
ces, and expect to be wealthy at no distant period ; 
but if as poor as Lazarus, I would be bound by 
every principle of right, and of honor, to support 
his destitute family. I now have the two boys in 
college, and there they shall remain at my expense 
until their education is complete, after which I in- 
tend taking them into my office, and give them 
each a thorough legal education ; and that is prob- 
ably more than the unfortunate father could have 
done, had he lived. That angel that hovered 
about his path and w T as instrumental in his refor- 
mation when in prison, but who dropped the cur- 
tain upon his earthly career, is now in the Lunatic 
Asylum, also at my cost." 

" Why," said Jones, now choked with emotion, 
and relieved only by a shower of tears, "Leblond, 
that is manly." 

" It is naked justice to the wretched family whom 
I have robbed of their protector ; and, could I have 
persuaded myself there was no God, no heaven, 
no hell, no retribution nor happiness beyond the 
grave — still, I would have done what I have done. 
Yet, if it is true philosophy and good morality, that 
the moral turpitude of the act is estimated by the 
intention, then, indeed, am I guiltless of the blood 
of poor Sibley. It is true that the man who wreck- 
lessly discharges his rifle into a crowd, and kills, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 289 

without intending so to do, is guilty of murder — 
this is probably good law as well as good sense. 
Upon that principle. I would have been responsible 
had I been sober when I went to his office." 

" But, brother Leblond," said the Judge, " drunk- 
enness does not excuse crime." 

" Then," said Leblond, " I am guilty of murder; 
and, had Hamlin been executed, which he would 
have been but for the interference of Providence, 
you would have occupied a no less enviable posi- 
tion." 

"While I have been more guilty than you," re- 
plied Judge Jones, " I have been more fortunate." 

" Judge, I sometimes, and of late particularly 
feel very much like quarrelling with that principle' 
of law that refuses to make drunkenness an ex- 
cuse for crime." 

" It works hardship occasionally," responded 
Jones ; " But, perhaps, not more often, nor greater 
than other general rules. Suppose the general 
rule was established that drunkenness could be 
urged as a defence. Then, sir, all a man would 
have to do, if he meditated a deadly injury against 
his neighbor, would be to get as drunk as bacchus, 
or even to affect drunkenness ; and under the rule 
he could with impunity, commit any and all sorts 
of crime and outrage," 

" Had the public known as much about the 

-cause that led to the terrible fate of poor Sibley 

as I did, it is quite probable I might have been 
19 



290 THE CNJUST JUDGE. 

tried in Judge Lynch's Court. It would have made 
my crime none the less to have made it public, 
while it might have crippled me in my efforts to 
repair the injury. But there has not been since 
the occurrence a day, nor scarcely an hour in the 
day, when the remembrance of this melancholy 
event has not come rushing upon my thoughts 
with the fearful effects of the desolating tornado; 
and did I not possess an iron will and the power 
of saying, c thus far and no farther, and here let 
thy proud waves be stayed,' I should have been 
overwhelmed, and met a more tragical end than 
the unfortunate victim of my folly." 

" You have," said Jones, " done all that could 
have been done ; and you will allow me to con- 
gratulate you upon your ability to drive back the 
unbidden thoughts that would have haunted me 
till the ' latest syllable of recorded time, ' had 
Hamlin been executed. I also think you acted 
wisely, concealing your agency in the fatal tra- 
gedy of the lamented Sibley, from the public, as 
it could have done no good and might have done 
great harm. But," continued Jones, " I believe I 
would have dreaded Judge Alban's Court quite a» 
much as Lynch's." 

" By no means," immediately replied Leblond. 
" Alban — Judge Alban and myself were upon 
most intimate terms of friendship at that time.— 
It is true that since I have become, as I fancy, a 
better man, he is down upon me." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 291 

" That would have afforded you no protection," 
said Jones. " A man is always unsafe in the 
hands of a Court, more under the control of pre- 
judice and passion, whims and caprices, than 
sound legal principles or moral worth ; and by the 
way, I have heard, it seems to me, that the old 
bloat was dead." 

" Yes, he is," said Leblond, " and his death was 
tragical — nearly as much so as Sibley's, Sikes,' or 
Lahm's. He had become much more corrupt than 
any of them." 

" I knew," said Jones, "very little of Sheriff 
Sikes ; but from what I have seen of Sibley and 
Lahm, I would think them men of considerable 
talent, and disposed generally in all their acts and 
doings to be governed by the strictest rules of 
right. — while I have never had any confidence 
in Alban, and certainly less, since he got Jewett 
out of his trouble. 'We love the treason but hate 
the traitor." ' 

"We should tread lightly upon the ashes of the 
dead, 5 is a sentiment that wells up from the bot- 
tom of all hearts of ordinary sensibility, yet be- 
tween us, Judge, who are alike acquainted with 
the frailties, imperfections and vices of Alban, he 
had not only his weak, very weak points, but he 
was corrupt ; perhaps not exactly corrupt with 
malice prepense, but from the force of passion and 
prejudice; he usually manifested great reckless- 

19* 



292 THE UNJUST JUDGE 

ness and every body and every thing that came in 
the way of those prejudices, were sacrificed. 

" Justice sooner or later overtakes men of that 
character — it is sometimes slow T , but always cer- 
tain." 

" To this tardiness," responded Leblond, 
" you and I are equally indebted for time and 
space for reformation." 

Dinner was now announced, and our friends 
repaired to the dining room and found a table 
which, thirty-six hours previously would have been 
groaning under the weight of the first quality of 
every description of choice liquors, now graced 
with cold water only. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

'The brave man is not he who feels no fear ; 

For that were stupid and irrational ; 

But he whose noble soul its fears subdues, 

And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from. 

Joanna Bailie, 

"We've had a general time of rejoicing," said 
Mrs. Jones, while the unbidden tear gathered and 
stole down her face, now flushed with emotion. 

"The rejoicing is of rather a recent date," re- 
marked the Judge ; but with sombre brow and 
strong emphasis, added — " ' better late than never.' 
The ladies," continued he, " have much more pen- 
etration than we gentlemen have been in the habit 
of ascribing to them. It might be well for you to 
look to this matter, as you are already in the hy- 
menial trap." 

"Not in," replied Leblond, "yet I must confess I 
rnay find it exceedingly difficult to break away 
from its influence," if it was thought desirable." 

"That 'if it w T as thought desirable,' is a most 
interesting and important provision," said Mrs. 
Jones. 

Leblond, feeling that he occupied tender ground, 
changed the conversation by remarking, that he, 
too, felt considerable interest in this rejoicing, to 



294 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

which an allusion had been made. " I would in- 
fer," continued Leblond, addressing himself to Mrs. 
Jones, "that the Judge supposed these sprees in 
which we have been indulging were sub rosa so far 
as you were concerned ? " 

Remarkable for her great prudence as well as 
her sterling good sense, Mrs. Jones looked at the 
Judge, and significantly smiled, but made no fur- 
ther reply. 

" Mr. Leblond," said the Judge, " these wives 
are excellent in their place. But for them and their 
happy influencies upon man and his destiny, we 
should have, very soon, an entirely different state 
of things." , 

Leblond, so recently from a visit to Amelia, 
could have said pretty things, strong things, and 
tender things, but was afraid to trust himself upon 
the subject of wives, and their excellencies, lest he 
might say soft things; looked wise, but was silent. 

Mrs. Jones' keen eye, and sensitive feeling, dis- 
covered Leblond's embarrassment, and she sought 
to relieve him by remarking that wives were like 
husbands — good, better, best ;. and probably, bad, 
worse, w T orst — and suggested to him the importance 
of having his the best, as the marriage relation 
would have an important influence upon all his 
relations in life, for good or evil, unless he should 
happen to be so unfortunate as to marry a nega- 
tive character — a kind of nondiscript — one who 
has not sufficient force of character to make a 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 295 

mark of any description. She now discovered that 
he was still more embarrassed than before. 

The Judge came to her aid, by remarking, that 
one who could make no mark was certainly more 
harmless than one who makes a strong mark, and 
averse to his interest. 

Table talk over, Jones and Leblond entered the 
drawing room. 

" Leblond," said the Judge, " what about this 
Maine Law,' this coming winter?" 

" I am in for it ," said Leblond, " until its passage 
is affected, after which the law shall be executed 
in my neighborhood at least." 

" That gives me unmixed pleasure," said the 
Judge, both simultaneously rising and grasping 
each other's hand with a cordiality they had never 
before manifested. 

" By what means have you been converted from 
the error of your ways?" said Leblond. 

u My wife has done it," said the Judge. 

"What blessed beings these wives are!" ex- 
claimed Leblond. " I am indebted to the same 
influence for a change which, a few weeks since, 
I little dreamed of." 

" What," quickly replied the Judge, " you are 
not married ? " 

" No," stammered Leblond, " but I expect to be." 

"That is sufficient," said the Judge, " I under- 
stand it," 



296 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

" Now," said Judge Jones, " this Maine Law 
must be passed by the next legislature ; and," 
continued he, " it can be accomplished, if prop- 
erly taken hold of. I for one am willing to devote 
to it one year's toil l M 

" No man has greater atonements to make than 
myself for past offences," said Leblond; "but I 
confess I scarcely know where to commence or 
how to begin." 

Leblond was a good lawyer, well acquainted 
with his profession, but, 

" To veer and tack and steer a canse 
Against the weather- gage of laws/'" 

was one thing, while managing a warm contest in 
which a great moral question was involved, was a 
different matter; and one in which he had no ex- 
perience, yet he had resolved to make his mark 
without regard to the many friends it might alie- 
nate. 

" Leblond," said the Judge, '" we must be 

"heroes in the strife." 

" Ay, and martyrs too, if necessary," replied 
Leblond. 

" That sacrifice will not be required," said the 
Judge, " unless I have failed to comprehend the 
indications. The masses are beginning to think, 
and think correctly upon this subjeet, and all we 
have to do is to procure the enactment of the law 
and the people will sustain it." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE, 297 

" The people seldom disregard their true inter- 
ests ; and if they think candidly in relation to this 
matter they will undoubtedly sustain it upon that 
ground," said Leblond. " But what are your tac- 
tics, Judge ?" 

" We must observe system in this fight. It will 
be a fierce one, and if we engage in it without 
first marshaling our strength and drilling our for- 
ces, we are vanquished ; rely upon it !" 

" My plan is to secure the press, a most potent 
and powerful influence ; and that must be effected 
at as early a date as possible ; and immediately 
after the meeting of the legislature we must be- 
siege the State Capitol, and infest the law making 
power until it capitulates upon our own terms. 

"Another idea has just occurred to me, " con- 
tinued the Judge ; " female influence must be 
brought to bear upon this question. Our wives 
must accompany us to the city. Do you under- 
stand that ? Mr. Leblond. Karnes tells us t that 

'Grief as well as joy is infectious." ' 

"Now, we must infect the city with our sentiment. 
Sympathy is quite as contagious as grief or joy. 
Temperance men and women must be thrown into 
the city until they are as numerous as the locusts 
of Egypt : an excitement must be got up and the 
thing carried by storm." 

" That looks well as a theory," said Leblond 
u but will it work well in practice. Where are 



298 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

those swarms to come from, with which you con- 
template infesting the city." 

" I have an extensive acquaintance among the 
members of the bar in each county jn the State, 
and they are the active men — the thinking men 
and the speaking men — the men who give tone 
and character to public sentiment — can set them 
all in ablaze. And they will shape the course of 
the public prints in their respective localities, and 
we will soon have a vast army in the field 'armed 
and equipped according to law," ' said the Judge, 
with great fervor. 

"That will do," replied Leblond. " But would 
it not be well to write immediately to Hamlin, 
Jewett, Barber, and some twenty other active law- 
yers in different parts of the State, and secure 
their immediate co-operation ?" 

"No," returned the Judge," " we must see them 
personally." 

Our two friends next morning, in different di- 
rections, were on their mission of " peace and 
good will to men." 

In about ten days after they separated, Jones 
received the following note : 

My Dear Jones : — Your plan is working like a 
charm. I find no difficulty in enlisting the editors 
generally, and the lawyers almost universally. — 
The clergymen are, with scarcely an exception, 
engaged in this reformation. A few demagogues, 
with here and there a reckless editor, are attempt- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 299 

ing to create an unfavorable impression ; but 
their discordant notes will be lost in the wailings 
of the storm we shall raise. 

Keep the ball in motion, and let me hear from 
you soon. 

I am very truly yours, 

L. LEBLOND." 

The election was now over ; and hence the ob- 
ject of Jones and Leblond in traveling the State 
was to create an excitement they could bring to 
bear upon the Legislative body, soon to meet at 
the seat of government. 

Jones had seen Hamlin and had a long inter- 
view with him ; and the day after Jones and Ham- 
lin separated, Jewett and the Senator started — 
one east and the other west, animated with the 
hope that the days of the fell monster, intempe- 
rance, were numbered. 

Leblond in company with Barber, spent some 
three weeks in passing from city to city, and from 
town to town. They made no speeches, but qui- 
etly pursued their way through different parts of 
the State, securing as they went along, the bar and 
the press, with the promise of flaming editorials 
and heavy delegations to the State Capitol, du- 
ring the session of the Legislature. 

Leblond resolved on having Amelia witness his 
efforts at the State Capitol, took up his line of 



300 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

march for Mr. Leonard's, where a few days after 
his arrival, his marriage was solemnized amidst 
great pomp and splendor, and was soon thereafter 
on his way to the seat of government, where he 
expected to meet Jewett, Barber, Judge Jones and 
numerous other distinguished legal gentlemen and 
prominent politicians from different parts of the 
State. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

- Tune your harps, 



Ye angels to that sound ; and thou my heart, 
ftlake room to entertain my flowing joy 1 — Dry den. 

Two or three days previous to the meeting of 
the Legislature, Judge Jones repaired to the seat 
of government, where he had the gratification of 
finding Jewett, Barber, Leblond, Hamlin, Tomp- 
kins and numerous other members of the bar, edi- 
tors and supporters of the Maine Law, clad in ar- 
mor for the coming fight, 

A meeting of the friends of the measure was 
privately called, to which Judge Jones submitted 
a bill he had previously prepared with great care. 
In some respects it was more stringent, and in 
others it was less so, than the Maine Law. 

After some discussion the bill was adopted with 
an additional provision, which made the third in- 
fraction of the law, a Penitentiary offence ; and 
in case the Prosecuting Attorney neglected or re- 
fused vigorously to prosecute the same, it was 
made the duty of the Judge of the Court, to dis- 
miss him from office — appoint another in his 
stead, and to strike his name from the list of pro- 
secuting attorneys ; and a laches upon the part of 



302 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

the Jude, was made sufficient cause for impeach- 
ment. 

The bill thus prepared and amended, was taken 
by Tompkins with the promise that at the earliest 
possible moment after the organization of the 
Senate, he would introduce it and urge its pas- 
sage, with all the ability he possessed. 

No sooner had the Senate elected its officers 
and appointed the committees, than Tompkins 
rose in his place in the Senate, and offered the 
Bill, by which the Senate was taken by surprise, 
and quite a sensation produced. 

Tompkins was a leading spirit in that body, and 
at the head of a political party which it wa3 sup- 
posed would generally oppose the passage of the 
Bill ; and hence it struck terror in the ranks of 
the enemies of the measure. 

At the period of which we are now writing, the 
city was filled with strangers beyond precedent ; 
and while the temperance cause had scores upon 
scores of the most prominent members of the bar 
from different portions of the State, the whiskey 
influence had got up no inconsiderable outside 
pressure. 

The distillers, grocers and retailers of ardent 
spirits, in every nook and corner of the State, 
were immediately after the introduction of the 
Bill, notified of their danger, and very soon had 
their representatives in the city. Their calling 
wa? in jeopardy, and they had spilled out their 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 303 

money like water, resolved that the work of death 
should go on. 

It was soon ascertained that the Bill was in lit- 
tle danger in the Senate, yet it was desirable that 
it should pass that body by as large a majority as 
possible, for the prestige it would have upon the 
lower house, where the great fight would be made. 

At Judge Jones' room as well as at Leblond's, 
a caucus was held every few evenings, where, the 
proper time for bringing up the measure in the 
Senate, was discussed and finally determined. 

Now, that the period for discussing the Bill in 
the Senate was fixed, Hamlin, Tompkins and five 
or six other prominent members of the Senate, 
of each of the political parties, began vigorously 
to prepare for the conflict. 

While Hamlin was to argue the constitution- 
ality of the "Law," Tompkins, who was distin- 
guished for his rhetorical as well as oratorical 
powers, was designated to make a popular speech, 
in which all the evils upon domestic happiness, 
upon social life, upon the body politic, upon our 
hopes beyond the tomb, were to pass in revision. 

Several other accomplished and powerful advo- 
cates of the Bill, were detailed to enter the fight. 
armed with wit, sarcasm, declamation or argu- 
ment at such time and place in the progress of 
the debate, as exigencies might seem to require. 

The day at length arrived for the discussion ; 
and three or four hours before the time fixed bv 



304 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 



the Senate to assemble, the Hall of the Senate 
was filled to its utmost capacity. 

As Leblond and Judge Jones, now recognized 
as the great champions of the Law, entered arm 
in arm, the ladies in the gallery began and kept 
up for several minutes, a waving of their w T hite 
handkerchiefs. " Leblond," said the Judge, " we 
must be content with being silent spectators of all 
this glory." 

M I," returned Leblond, u would give the guber- 
natorial chair, if I owned it, for six years, yes," 
added he, " I would exchange a seat in the Uni- 
ted States Senate for twelve years, for an oppor- 
tunity of meeting these champions of Rum in this 
debate." 

;i Have you seen an article which appears in the 
Forum, printed at C " said Leblond. 

" No, I have not," replied the Judge. 

Leblond took the paper from his pocket and 
handed it to Jones, w 7 ho read as follows : 

" We have been watching the signs in the po- 
litical horizon since the election, with more than 
ordinary interest, and have come to the conclu- 
sion there is every where in the State, exhibiting 
itself a deliberate, yet a quiet and unobtrusive 
purpose, to enact the Maine Law ; certainly none 
the less dangerous on account of its being co- 
vertly gotten up, and clandestinely managed. 

" Indeed, when our political enemies have sought 
to get the advantage of us, they have invariably 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. dU5 

been arch, insidious, honied and hypocritical. — 
"Our political opponents can have from principle, 
no strong partialities for the Maine Law ; nor 
can we see how they can consistently support a 
temperance measure of any kind. 

" No party, of which we have any knowledge 
as a party, has ever been more grossly addicted 
to intemperance, than the party now evidently try- 
ing to ride this last and most contemptible of all 
hobbies, yet they are raising their hands in holy 
horror at the evils of intemperance, manifestly for 
the purpose of gaining the political ascendency. 

'• Now, we call upon our friends in the Legisla- 
ture, and out of it, to rally and save the cherished 
principles of Jefferson and Jackson from the rude 
assault of the Goth and Vandal politician, alike 
reckless of principle and the interest of the 
masses. Fain would these intriguing, unprinci- 
pled politicians, make the people believe that our 
party was a vast army of drunkards ; and this ob- 
viously for the purpose of drawing largely upon 
the credulity, if not upon the gullibility, of our 
party. 

" We would say to our friends in the Legisla- 
ture, stand firm, nor allow your influence to be 
given in favor of any measure that would infringe 
upon the sovereign rights of citizens. 

* We expect a few will leave us upon this ques- 
tion ; yet enough will remain to defeat the meas- 
ure, and give us the power in the State for all 
30 



306 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

time to come ; while those who remain will be re- 
liable — can be depended upon in the most trying- 
emergencies. 

" We claim always to have been in favor of 
temperance, and still are ; and yet we oppose the 
Maine Law for the reason that we believe it is at 
this time thrust into politics by designing knaves, 
for the purpose of dividing and conquering; and 
the men who are bawling temperance the* loudest 
care the least for the interests of outraged, suffer- 
ing humanity." " 

After reading the above article, Judge Jones very 
coolly remarked, that it impeached the head as 
well a3 the heart of the editor, and was well cal- 
culated to destroy confidence, as well in his integ- 
rity as in his ability, and impair any influence he 
might have been able, from the position he occu- 
pied, to have exerted over his fellow men. 

" That thought, 5 ' said Leblond, " has never 
sufficiently moulded the actions and shaped the 
course, of our public men — too many of them 
seek a gratification of their feelings or a present 
interest, at the cost of future usefulness and dis- 
tinction." 

" There are," replied Judge Jones, " so many 
methods by which public men lose caste, and are 
reduced to a level with the people, that it is by no 
means strange that prominent public character?? 
find it a most arduous task, for any considerable 
length of time, to retain public favor." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 307 

Jk Ah!"' responded Leblond, " as we look down 
the declivity of entombed ages, what mournful 
proofs meet our vision, of the fearful fickleness of 
public favor. In ancient times, to become a great 
master or benefactor of our race, was to court a 
violent death, often by the axe of State, but more 
frequently by the private dagger." 

'• Modern times," answered the Judge, " have 
only improved upon the usages and cruelties of 
remote and barberous ages. When a master spi- 
rit arose and became troublesome to the ignorant 
masses, in battling their prejudices, crushing and 
demolishing forever their errors and false theories, 
they decapitated him to make room for less men. 
" But in these days of Christian illumination 
and benevolence — amid the effulgence of science 
and the progress of arts, civilization and refine- 
ment — as soon as a man renders himself conspi- 
cuous and distinguished for valuable service ren- 
dered the State, whether in the cabinet or in the 
field — envy, jealousy, hate, ambition and desire 
for place — commission their emissaries and send 
them forth to hurt and destroy, and soon a great 
statesman, philosopher and philanthropist, lies 
festering in his wounds, equally unable to live and 
unable to die." 

i: I think too," exclaimed Leblond, " that there 
was more humanity in the barbarity that struck 
oif their heads and placed their victims beyond 

the reach of physical ills, than there is in the 
20* 



308 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

modern method, by which they are rendered inca- 
pable of accomplishing anything, and yet com- 
pelled to drag out a miserable existence : for cer- 
tainly a shipwrecked politician and broken down 
statesman, enjoy fewer of the sweets and endure 
more of the bitters of life, than any other descrip- 
tion of character. But we have wandered," con- 
tinued Leblond, " from the point, and now to re- 
turn to that article ; what will be the effect of it?' 7 

e f One effect will be," said Judge Jones. " to 
read you and myself out of the party." 

" And if that, then more than that," replied 
Leblond. " All of our political party who attended 
and took an active part in the recent tempe- 
rance convention held in this city. The largest 
convention ever held here for any purpose ; and a 
large majority of those in attendance belonged 
to our political party, and some of the most dis- 
tinguished men in the State ; and yet that little 
petty editor of a little petty country paper, will 
take upon himself the responsibility of attempt- 
ing to ostracise us all. It is a most fortunate cir- 
cumstance for us that he does not wield a power- 
ful pen." 

" If he had been worshiping at the shrine of 
Bacchus for a series of years," said Jones, " that 
kind of squib would not be unaccountable ; but I 
am told he is a sober man." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 309 

" Oh ! yes," replied Leblond, quite a temperate 
man, and what is more, a deacon in one of the 
churches of his village/' 

" That can't be possible," exclaimed Jones. — 
Leblond, you must be in error. A man kneel and 
pray for the coming of Emanuel's Kingdom, and 
at the same time pander to this vice, which like 
the mighty oak, towers above all the sins of our 
race, is showing its horrid and gigantic head — the 
mother of all vice — the head and front of old Dia- 
boles', army. There is in this too much incon- 
sistency for even fallen and erring humanity." — 
:i It is so," said Leblond. " I am w r ell acquainted 
with him." 

u Well," exclaimed Jones, " I suppose he con- 
tributes occasionally for missionary purposes?" 

" I believe he does," answered Leblond. 

" Well," continued Jones, " we ought to raise a 
fund for the purpose of having a few hundreds of 
the Chinese imported into this country as tempe- 
rance missionaries. They refused, you will rec- 
ollect, to have the British opium crammed down 
their throats, until the superiority of English sci- 
ence and military tactics had desolated their coast 
cities, and slaughtered them with a barbarity and 
cruelty without a parallel in modem warfare. — 
And yet opium eating is attended with less fear- 
ful consequences than dram drinking." 

" But," exclaimed Leblond, " even admitting 
that one of the great political parties has been 



310 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

distinguished more than the other for ' bacchana- 
lian revelry,' is that any reason why it should not 
reform ? upon the contrary, is it not a sufficient 
reason if no other existed, for its taking the lead 
in removing the rock upon which it split?" 

" From my observation," said Judge Jones, 
" drunkenness is confined to neither party, nor 
does it prevail to a greater extent in one than 
another." 

Hamlin now obtained the floor and proceeded 
to address the Senate. 

He commenced by saying : Though he had 
from early boyhood to the present moment been 
an advocate of temperance, yet the evils of that 
monster vice had fallen upon him with most crush- 
ing weight, but that his purpose at that time was 
simply to remove doubts which he understood ex- 
isted in certain quarters, as to the constitutionality 
of the measure. 

He went on to remark, that it was strange how 
any well informed mind since 1813, could doubt 
upon that question, " In that year," continued 
he, " Congress passed an act entitled ' An act 
for laying duties on licenses to retailers of wines, 
spirituous liquors and foreign merchandize,' which 
contained a provision he read as follows : 

"Provided always, that no license shall be 
granted to any person to sell wines, distilled spir- 
ituous liquors or merchandize, who is prohibited 
therefrom to sell the same by the State." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 311 

And maintained with great force and power, 
that it was clearly and manifestly implied in the 
passage of the law, that a State had the right to 
prohibit the manufacture, sale or barter of any 
article which was detrimental to the public wel- 
fare ; and insisted with equal clearness and 
power that the control of the internal trade was 
reserved to the States. 

" But," " continued he, " all doubts must be 
forever dissipated, since the decisions of the Su- " 
preme Court of the United States made in 1845, 
on three different cases, one from the State of 
Massachusetts — prohibiting the sale of spirituous 
liquors in less quantities than twenty- eight gal- 
lons — one from New Hampshire, and one from 
Rhode Island, of a similar character." 

He here read the remarks of Chief Justice Ta- 
ney, as reported in 5 Howard; p. 504. 

"Every State may regulate its own internal 
traffic, according to its own judgment and upon 
its own views of the interest and well being of its 
citizens. If any State deems the retail and inter- 
nal traffic in ardent spirits injurious to its citizens, 
and calculated to produce idleness, ruin and de- 
bauchery, I see nothing in the Constitution of the 
United States to prevent it from regulating and 
restraining the traffic, or from prohibiting it alto- 
gether, if it thinks proper." 

" In these cases, the Chief Justice had the con- 
currence of each of his associates upon the 



312 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

bench," continued Hamlin, " from the remarks of 
whom, with your indulgence, I will read." 

"I admit," says Judge Catron, "as inevitable, 
that if the State has the power of restraint by li- 
cense to any extent, she has the discretionary 
power to Judge of its limits, and may go to the 
length of prohibiting sales altogether." 

Judge M'Lean holds the following : 

" Merchandise from a port where contagious 
disease prevails, being liable to communicate dis- 
ease, may be excluded, and in certain cases may 
be thrown into the sea. This comes in direct con- 
flict with the regulations of commerce, and yet es- 
sential to preservation, and exists necessarily in 
every organized community. It is, indeed, the 
law of nature, and is possessed by man in his in- 
dividual capacity." 

" Again," continued Hamlin, " Judge Grier 
says : 

" Quarantine laws which protect public health, 
compel mere commercial regulations to submit to 
their control. They restrain the liberty of the 
passengers ; they operate on the ship which is the 
instrument of commerce, and its officers and crew, 
the agents of navigation. They seize the infected 
cargo and cast it overboard. All these things are 
done, not from power which the State assumes to 
regulate or interfere with the regulations of Con- 
gress, but because the police laws for the preven- 
tion of crime and the protection of the public 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 313 

welfare, must of necessity have full and free ope- 
ration according to the exigency which requires 
their interference. If a loss of revenue should 
accrue to the United States from a diminished 
consumption of ardent spirits, she would be the 
gainer a thousand fold in the health and happi- 
ness of the city." ' 

" While another of the Judges holds the fol- 
lowing language, 5 ' continued Hamlin : 

(i It is not necessary to array the appalling sta- 
tistics of misery, pauperism, and crime, w r hich have 
their origin in the use and abuse of ardent spirits. 
The police power, which is exclusively vested in 
the State, is alone competent to the correction of 
these great evils ; and all measures of restraint or 
prohibition necessary to effect that purpose, are 
within the scope of that authority. All laws for 
the restraint or punishment of crime, or the pres- 
ervation of the public peace, health, or morals are 
from their very nature of primary importance and 
lie at the foundation of social existence. They are 
for the protection of life and liberty, and necessarily 
compel all laws on subjects of secondary impor- 
tance, which relate only to property, convenience, 
or luxury, to recede when they come in contact or 
collision. 

" The question, then," continued Hamlin, "has 
been adjudicated and settled affirmatively, by the 
highest judicial power of the land. If it was an 
open question, who could doubt how it must ne- 



314 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

cessarily be settled ? The framers of the consti- 
tution never contemplated taking away from the 
citizen, the natural right of self preservation." 

As soon as Hamlin closed, a young man from 
the Southwestern portion of the State, rose and 
talked flippantly, for some thirty minutes, about 
the immense amount of money his constituents had 
invested in the manufacture and traffic of spiritu- 
ous liquors, and wound up w*ith an attempt at 
rhetorical flourish, in which he claimed, that there 
was, in the entire State, about ten millions of dol- 
lars invested in the business of manufacturing and 
vending alcoholic drinks, which would seek other 
investments, and for the most part out of the State, 
in the event of the passage of the law. 

Tompkins now arose, amid the waving of hand- 
kerchiefs and deafning applause, which lasted for 
several minutes in spite of the efforts of the Pres- 
ident and officers of the Senate. Order being re- 
stored, he commenced by portraying 

" In eloquence that charms and burns. 
Startles, sooths, and wins by turns," 

the inroads upon domestic happiness made by this 
great curse. After dwelling upon this branch of 
his subject for about forty minutes, during which 
eyes " unused to the melting mood" were seen to 
weep, he delineated its baleful effects upon social 
life, in a most graphic and masterly manner. 

" Now with a giant's might, 
He heaves the ponderous thought; 
Now pours the storm of eloquence 
With scathing lightning fraught." 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 315 

He then, for sometime, discussed the effects of in- 
temperance upon the body politic in which he 
showed by startling facts and figures, that more 
than nineteen-twentieths of all the crime in the 
land was caused, either directly or indirectly, by 
this vice — that it peopled our alms-houses and our 
prisons, nursed litigation and engendered disease ; 
and wound up by following the wretched inebriate 
to the regions of pandamonium, where the raven 
wing of despair flapped in betoken of the endless 
durability of his torment. 

" He ceased ; and solemn silence now was broke 
Which reigned triumphant, while the hero spoke j 
And then was heard, amid the general pause, 
One simultaneous burst of loud applause," 



CHAPTER XXV. 

" It tells me every eloud is past 

Whicli lately seemed to lower, 
That Hope katli wed young Joy at last, 
And now's their nuptial hour.' 5 

The Bill having passed the Senate with but few 
dissenting voices, was now sent to the Hall of the 
House of Representatives where, it was hoped by 
the enemies of the measure, it would be defeated. 

At the commencement of the session of the Leg- 
islature, the bill had but few friends in the lower 
House, yet those were among the most active and 
influential members of the body 

The supporters of the "Maine Law" were quite 
sanguine of ultimate success, but dreaded imme- 
diate action, while the opposers of the measure 
were resorting to every artifice that ingenuity could 
invent to bring the matter to an issue. The daily 
and hourly accessions to the " Maine Law " force, 
induced them to regard delay as fraught with imi- 
nent danger. 

In the meantime, the aid of Barnum, Cary, Jew- 
ett, and other patriarchs in the cause of temper- 
ance, was invoked and their presence hourly ex- 
pected. 



THE UXJl'ST JUDGE. 317 

While our temperance friend?, prompted by the 
best feelings of our nature, with a patriotism and 
love of their race, that would have done honor to 
the sages and soldiers of our memorable revolu- 
tionary struggle, were encompassing sea and land 
for the purpose of procuring the passage of this 
philanthropic measure, the whiskey influence was 
by no means inactive. The emissaries of the traf- 
fic were hovering around, as numerous as the frogs 
of Egypt, with neither the disposition nor ability 
to meet the question fairly, and manfully discuss 
its merits, but were as near omnipresent as finite 
creatures could be. Now, decoying by some petty 
artifice, a member of the House into a saloon, or 
drinking establishment — then indulging in vulgar 
witticisms at the expense of men as far their supe- 
riors in every thing that enters into our estimate 
of a great and good man, as virtue is above vice. 

The ladies now determined to give the friends 
and supporters of the " Maine Law :5 a free sup- 
per. Conscious that many of the members of the 
House could not be reached through either head 
or heart, resolved to try the living argument; and 
hence they w T ere invited to be present and partake 
of this sumptuous repast. 

in the preparation for this festive occasion, nei- 
ther pains nor expense was spared to make it a 
most brilliant and magnificent affair. Instrumen- 
tal and vocal music were secured, and everything 



318 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

done to make the occasion fascinating and en- 
chanting. 

The evening at length arrived. The largest hall 
in the city had been procured, and was now 
crowded to its utmost capacity. 

" The glad circle round them yield their souls 
To festive mirth and wit that knows no gall." 

Speeches were the order of the day, or rather of 
the night. Judge Jones was called for, and re- 
sponded in thrilling eloquence, for about ten min- 
utes ; then Leblond, Barber, Jewett, Tompkins, 
and Hamlin, each in his turn, held that vast as- 
sembly spellbound with "thoughts that breathe 
and words that burn." 

Judge Jones now stepped upon the table and 
remarked, in a deep-toned voice, heard distinctly 
in the most remote corner of the hall, that he 
wished to make profert to members of the House, 
of some of the trophies of the demon alcohol, 
which he had procured at considerable trouble and 
expense, to grace this occasion ; and hoped they 
would come forward and occupy a position in 
front of the table, upon which he stood. The 
members were soon before him, asrequsted; when 
he caused, by previous concert, suddenly a sliding 
door to be thrown open, which exposed to the gap- 
ing view of the astonished and awe-stricken leg- 
islators, about thirty women and children robed 
in the habiliments of the deepest mourning. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 319 

kk These, my countrymen," exclaimed Jones, 
' are some of the trophies of this unrelenting de- 
stroyer. Behold the aged mother of Lahm ! crush- 
ed with the weight of grief — bending to the tomb, 
deprived by this ruthless murderer of a prop in 
her declining years, and tell me by your future 
acts, whether human hearts throb in your bosoms 
— say by your votes upon this temperance meas- 
ure, whether you can feel for another's woes. — 
View these orphan children, tender girls, from the 
lisping, pratling infant, too young to comprehend 
the extent of the injury society has inflicted upon 
its rights, to the blooming youth, just budding into 
womanhood. Their natural guardian and protec- 
tor torn from them and they left unguarded and 
alone to struggle with poverty and buffet the rude 
waves of adversity. Behold these widows in their 
weeds ! They once had kind and indulgent hus- 
bands whose pleasure it was to provide for their 
wants. They axe now alone — and alone they are 
compelled to grapple with formidable difficulties 
that cluster along their paths. Alban, Jenkins and 
others we might name, had wise heads and manly 
hearts, but in an unguarded moment the deceiver 
came, and they fell victims to his wiley artifices ; 
and they now moulder in the cold grave, uncon- 
scious of the aggravated wrongs they have en- 
tailed upon these unprotected and disconsolate fe- 
males. Will you not throw the weight of your 



3*20 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

official positions upon this arch deceiver and grind 
him to powder." 

" We will, we will J" exclaimed fifty voices or 
more. 

Leblond, from his intuitive knowledge of the 
human heart, saw T that this was the propitious mo- 
ment, sprang upon the table, and amid sighs and 
sobs adjourned the meeting, when the people slowly 
disappeared. 

A council of the sachems w r as privately called, 
immediately after the meeting dispersed ; and 
upon consultation and deliberation, it was thought 
advisable to force the Bill through at the earliest 
possible moment. Accordingly on the following 
morning the Bill was called up, and to the amaze- 
ment of the friends as well as the enemies of the 
measure, four or five of the most prominent oppo- 
sers of the Maine Law, had, during the previous 
evening, enlisted for the war under the " Maine" 
banner, and were now like the prancing war steed, 
impatient for the coming conflict. Nor were they 
long in suspense. 

A frothy young limb of the law, from that region 
of the State where distilleries were numerous and 
corn in abundance, rose and said, that many mill- 
ions of money were invested in the State, in the 
manufacture and sale of liquors, nearly all of 
which would be an entire loss if the bill passed ; 
and that which might be saved from the wreck 
would seek investment in sister States — that corn 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 321 

and rye. which were now commanding a high price 
in consequence of the immense amounts used in 
distilling liquors, would become a drug in our mar- 
kets — that the reduction in the prices of these pro- 
ducts of the farm would very materially affect the 
agricultural interests, and lessen essentially the 
ralue of the productive lands of the State ; and 
closed with an overwrought declamation, in which 
he asserted that the temperance advocates in their 
real, closed their eyes upon facts, and trampled 
upon the rights of their fellow citizens. 

The member who now obtained the floor was 
one of the recent converts. He maintained in all 
the zeal of new born faith, that there was not one 
half the amount invested in the manufacture and 
traffic which the gentleman claimed ; but insisted 
if there were fifty millions, instead of five, it 
would be infinitely better for the State, for society, 
for religion, for education, for everything that 
characterized and distinguished civilization and 
refinement from barbarism and heathenish dark- 
ness ; that a mill-stone be hanged about its neck, 
and it cast into the uttermost depths of the ocean, 
than that it should be permitted to remain among 
us, infecting society with vice, with indolence, and 
with crime. 

He argued that the money now invested in 

manufacturing this fearful instrument of misery, 

wretchedness and death, would readily and with 

great facility, in this active, moving, restless age 

21 



322 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

of invention, seek investment in other channels, 
from which would flow blessings instead of curses, 
upon society. That the thousands now made 
drunken debauchees, and hence weights upon the 
body politic, would be saved by this measure; 
would become sober, industrious men, and their 
energies would be spent in felling our forests and 
draining our lands ; in constructing internal im- 
provements and enhancing the wealth of the 
country. 

" Could the gentleman," continued the speaker, 
;i visit one of our large cities and there witness. 
as I have, in its two or three thousand liquor gro- 
ceries, the pernicious facilities furnished to thou- 
sands of husbands, wives and children, who bat 
for these sinks of iniquity might never have 
been tempted, and might have been, many of 
them, among our most useful citizens : and there 
see the father, and often the mother, spend in 
these dens of degradation, their last dime ; when 
their money is gone, then pawn the furniture of 
the house, article by article, until not even the 
beds upon which the family slept are left, and then 
carry their own and the clothing of their children, 
and pledge them for whiskey; would he not re- 
lent ? Would he not be in favor of putting out the 
fires that feed these prolific sources of crime and 
misery? We have vastly over-estimated both the 
head and heart of the gentleman, if he could wit- 
ness these scenes without pity and disgust ; if 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 323 

after seeing them, he could, in this noon of the 
nineteenth century, amid a blaze of moral light 
that is flashing in every direction, stand erect in 
this legislative body and vote in favor of the per- 
petuation of a vice, all the evils of which the hu- 
man tongue is incapable of describing, and finite 
intellect unequal to the task of comprehending — 
could never be known until eternity revealed 
them." 

He closed by adding : 

1 Heaven a-nd earth will witness, 

If Eome must fall, we are innocent/"' ' 

Now another of the champions of alcohol rose, 
and assumed the position, that to pass the Bill 
would be an invasion of the rights of the citizen. 
Claimed that in a state of nature man had a 
right to eat, drink, wear, and in short, do what he 
pleased. That the passage of the " Maine Law" 
would be a,n infraction of one of those rights ; 
that citizens would not submit to an invasion of 
their rights. That the time was not far distant, 
if the Bill under consideration passed, when men 
would undertake to restrict us as to the quality 
and quantity of food we should eat ; and perhaps 
claim the right to say what we should, and what 
we should not, wear. 

This speaker was very brief, and evidently 
spoke against the convictions of head and heart. 
A most distinguished debater now procured 
21* 



s 



324 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

the floor,and for about two hours, discussed the sub- 
ject. He claimed the last gentleman had been most 
signally unfortunate, when he urged as a reason 
for the defeat of the Bill, that citizens would soon 
be in danger of having their kitchen and dining 
room arrangements interfered with. He insisted 
that when the general good of the whole demands 
the sacrifice, the police and municipal law would 
cut off any article of food, and without reference 
to the value or the amount of money invested in 
it. That when an epidemic or infectious disease 
prevails in a city or town, any and all articles of 
food, which are supposed to lend facilities to the 
spread of the epidemic or infection, may be by 
police and municipal regulations immediately de- 
clared contraband goods, however epicures — 
the less thoughtless and more reckless portion of 
the community, might rave. That the inherent 
power existed in society to protect itself against 
harm, whatever shape the wrong might assume. 
That no intelligent gentleman, much less an able 
jurist, would controvert the position that this was 
one of the rights which could not be taken from 
the citizens. 

"What," exclaimed he, " would bethought of the 
sanity of the individual whose house is broken 
and entered by the midnight burglar, who should 
not immediately rise and defend his domicil and 
its inmates ; but would await redress by the slow 
process of the law. Would not the slaughter of 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 325 

himself and family often follow in the wake of 
this kind of philosophy ? Does not necessity oc- 
casionally require in conflagrations, the blowing 
up and pulling down of whole blocks of buildings, 
for the purpose of saving a city ? while those en- 
gaged in the work never stop to enquire as to the 
right, nor has the right ever been questioned. 

Necessity would impel the father and husband 
to repel the burglar by violence, for the safety of 
his property, his wife and children. And a like 
necessity imperiously demands the destruction of 
large amounts of property in case of fire, in order 
that still greater amounts may be saved. 

" If then," continued he, " necessity is above 
all law, and individual citizens can avail them- 
selves of this necessity for the purpose of saving 
themselves and their property, might it not with 
much show of reason, be argued that individuals 
have a right upon the same principle to sieze spi- 
rituous liquor wherever and whenever found, and 
indiscriminately destroy it ? He would not insult 
that body by attempting to prove the use as well 
as abuse of ardent spirits, a great evil, as that 
would be impeaching their intelligence and good 
sense.'' 

He argued at great length, that society was or- 
ganized for mutual protection and defence. That 
if society possessed not the innate right to protect 
itself, then the great object and aim of its forma- 
tion had not been attained. But it was conceded 



326 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

that a community had a right without regard to 
law, to repel an invasion, arrest an infection, or 
stop a destructive fire, at the cost of the sacrifice 
of private property; and yet strange as it might 
appear, men respectable in point of intellect, and 
having some claims to morality, would stand in 
their places upon that floor, and insist that the 
passage of the Bill would be an invasion of the 
natural rights of the rum-seller, and the brandy 
tipler, notwithstanding intoxication was entomb- 
ing annually, more victims than the combined 
product of war, pestilence and famine. 

The charge might be regarded as uncharitable, 
yet he could not resist the temptation of saying, 
that those who were opposing the Bill were doing 
violence to their conscience, while they were pan- 
dering to the selfishness of those who were inter- 
ested in manufacturing and vending spirituous? 
liquors. 

Satisfied that he had done the subject ample 
justice so far as argument was concerned, deter- 
mined to reach those beyond the influence of rea- 
son and logic, with declamation, of which he wa? 
perfect master. 

He claimed that Christianity, which was Heav- 
en's greatest boon to the human race, had been 
stayed in its onward progress by the machinations 
of Rum ; that the march of morals in every de- 
partment had been turned back — that improve- 
ment in the arts and sciences had been impeded, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 327 

that the Republic of letters had been invaded by 
this greatest enemy of our race, and the diadem 
snatched from the brows of the devotees of litera- 
ture. That in every age and in every country 
where it was in general use, its withering curse 
rested upon the loftiest hopes of man as with a 
blighting mildew. 

He here closed in a strain of eloquence and 
sublime imagery, amid a "bedlam of applause/' 
with a description of the inebriate's home, and the 
gloomy prospect spread out before his heart- 
stricken wife and uncared for children, that threw 
some of the opposers of the measure into the 
wildest paroxisms of passion. 

The question was now called for, put and car- 
ried, when a shout went up that well nigh shook 
the pillars of the State House. It was the law 

OF THE GREAT STATE OF . 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

And lead us not into temptation 

But deliver us from evil. — Lord's Prayer. 

u Ma, ma," said a sprightly girl, about seven 
years of age, as she came bounding into her 
mother's room, her cheeks glowing like the ruby 
and her eyes flashing like beautiful gems, while 
she was clapping her hands in transports of joy ; 
• : Pa, can't get any liquor, pa can't, he can't: I 
saw him try many places ; he can't get it, I know 
he can't. Oh ! w r ont we now be happy, ma ? — 
Wont we soon have shoes and good new clothes, 
like Doctor Baker's little children?" 

Her mother now raised her eyes slowly from 
her work for she was plying the needle with all 
the energy which want impels, and coolly re- 
marked ; " my daughter, aint you mistaken ?" 

" No, indeed, ma ! I saw him go down to Jake 
lnfamy*s grocery, and as he passed along, I 
heard one gentleman say to another, ' will Jake 
Infamy give that man liquor? If he do, he 
ought to be attendeS to promptly, and put 
through." 

" And then I quietly followed him; and when he 
went into the grocery, I went just inside of the 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 32$ 

door and set down behind a barrel of fish, 
where neither pa nor Jake could see me. Pa 
asked for whiskey, but the grocery keeper told 
him he had none. Then pa said, ' 1 know you 
have plenty of it ; you had several barrels last 
night, and he must have some; that he had been 
a little high yesterday, and wanted some on which 
to taper off." ' 

But Jake said he couldn't let him have any— 
not a drop. 

" Then pa said, ' why ? havn't I always paid 
you — and here is the money." 5 

" Then pa threw down on the counter three 
cents, but Jake said he shouldn't have any ; that 
the Maine Law went into force yesterday; and 
that the Maine Law men were watching him, and 
would sue him and break him up, if he sold any. 
Pa then asked Jake to give him one dram, but 
Jake said he dare not give it away ; that was just 
as bad ; that they would sue him quite as soon for 
that as if he sold it. 

"Oh ! ma," said the child, " that Jake is a wicked 
man," as she approached her mother more closely, 
and in a half whisper, said, " he did swear such 
big oaths at the Maine Law." 

"Well, my dear," said the mother-, "it is the 
first time I have ever known him go to Infamy's 
grocery with three cents and come away empty. 
He will get liquor at some of the groceries before 



330 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

night, and come home, I fear, quite as drunk a*- 
usual." 

" No, no," quickly retorted the little girl ; " ma. 
he can't get any ; he went to all the groceries in 
the village, and as I saw him go into the last one. 
I slipped in between some boxes near the door, 
and heard the grocery man tell him they had no 
liquor there; but pa wanted some so bad, and the 
nasty man said he would'nt give him a glass if it 
would save his life. Was'nt that mean, ma? only 
think of it, wouldn't give pa a glass to save his 
life, and then, ma, you never heard how the grocery 
man did swear and curse the Maine Law. Who 
is the Maine Law, ma? He must be some very 
good man, these wicked grocery keepers all hate 
him so." 

" It is not a man, my dear child, but a law." 

" What is a law, m& ? It must be a good law. 
Didn't God make it ma ?" 

"No dear, God did not make the Maine Law \ 
but good men who love God, and their fellow men., 
made the law to prevent men from getting drunk, 
and spending for liquor the money they ought to 
spend for food and clothing for their families." 

" Ma," said the little girl, pa will never get 
drunk any more, and come home and be cross and 
abuse us ! He will save his money now, and he 
will buy us a house, wont he, ma? Ma, maint I 
then plant a honey-suckle, ajessamine and a rose, 
like Hetty Smith's? don't they look sweet, ma? — 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 331 

while she danced around the room in a delirium 
of childish glee. Could every father wedded to 
his cups, or in danger of becoming so, realize for 
a moment the pleasure that filled that infant 
breast at the thought of having a temperate 
father — a home where the tender hand could train 
and rear the plant — watch its budding and bloom- 
ing into emblematic purity, would he not be less 
than parental, if he did not stop, shake off the 
habit, with however much inveteracy it may have 

fastened itself upon him ? 

# # # * : # # # ~ % 

" Tom," said a half clad, sturdy loafer, as he 
came rather hastily into a grocery, some months 
previously his familiar haunt, " give us a dram," 
as he threw down three cents, the price of whis- 
key sufficient to make a fool of him, and fit him 
for the commission of crime of any grade. 

"We don't sell here," gruffly responded Tom, 
the grocery keeper. 

" Quit your blasted nonsense," said George 
Summers, and let me have the liquor : quick, I've 
had none for some time." 

" Didn't I tell you." said Tom, " we sell none 
here," more sullen than before. ^ 

" Yes," said George, " but then I know you are 
lying about it." 

"If you use that kind of language to me, 
again," answered Tom, quite out of humor, " I 



832 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

will climb over the counter and break your con- 
founded impudent head." 

" Why/' exclaimed George, " what the devil is 
the matter with you, I never saw you so before. 5 ' 

" Well," said Tom, " Fm not in a very good 
humor, and don't like to be insulted." 

" I did not intend to insult you, and never knew 
before it was any harm to come in and ask for a 
glass of liquor. It never before insulted you." 

"No, nor it wouldn't now," said Tom, " if it 
wasn't for this infernal Maine Law, that these 
cursed, hypocritical fanatics and saintly fools, 
have been passing." 

" Maine Law," said George, " what do you 
mean ?" 

" What I say, to be sure," grunted Tom. 

" Do tell me ; when was that passed," inquired 
George. 

Tom, still in doubt whether George was in good 
faith or attempting to annoy him over his misfor- 
tune in the liquor traffic, enquired of George where 
he had been for the last six months. 

It now became George's turn to lose his balance, 
and rave a little, supposing Tom had, from the be- 
ginning, been practicing a hoax upon him, said — 

" It is true I have been in the work-house for the 
last six months, but I am as good a man as you. 
I was sent there for getting drunk upon your liquor 
— whiskey, got from you, Sir ! While I was in 
prison, shut in from the world — associated w 7 ith 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 333 

villains and cut-throats — living on the convict's 
stinted and miserable rations, and sleeping on a 
pallet of straw?— familiar with creaking grates, 
iron bolts, clanking chains, and the overseer's lash, 
— you, sir, were happy with your family, enjoying 
your liberty ; while, through the influence of the 
money you have obtained by robbing myself, and 
other poor, unfortunate fellows, you have beaome 
the little end of ' upper-tendum ' whittled down : 
and, if you don't believe it,. just come over that 
counter if you dare, and I'll tramp you, you coward- 
ly puppy . You have desolated the home of my wife 
and children — you have made me a miserable, de- 
graded convict ; and now you will add insult to 
injury ! "—while he beat the air with his ponderous, 
great, clenched fist, as near the face of Tom as he 
could get it for the counter. 

The truth in the premises, now flashed upon 
the mind of Tom. He discovered that George had 
been in prison for six months, and during that pe- 
riod the Maine Law had been passed, and the 
liquor traffic had been stopped ; but George, just 
out of prison, had not, as yet, learned the fact — 
Tom, therefore, attempted to explain the difficulty 
thus : 

" George," said he, '* there is no occasion for un- 
kind feeling between you and myself — none in the 
least. You supposed I was intending to make 
sport of you, while I was quite certain you knew 
all about this cursed Maine Law, which I have no 



334 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

doubt John Bunyan made about the same time he 
made the Pilgrim's Progress, and was trifling alike 
with my feelings and misfortunes. I am now sat- 
isfied we were both mistaken. I did not know you 
had been in prison.' 5 

; * All right ! " exclaimed George, as he took Tom 
by the hand and said, " I want a little, if you have 
a drop about the establishment?" 

" I have not a drop, nor the hundredth part of 
a drop, nor have I a .vessel or cask about my store 
from which you could smell your old friend, and 
d — — d sorry am I, too, for it." 

"Well," said George, " You can tell me, I sup- 
pose, where I can get the worth of these three 
cents?" rattling them in the face of Tom. "I 
have had these three cents six months and a few 
hours. They happened to be in my pocket at the 
time I was sent to the work-house. You would 
have had them, Tom, long since, if the scamps up 
there had let me come dow T n town to see you." 

" You will not be able to get one drop in the 
city," somewhat petulently replied Tom. 

" Well, I will ;" was the quick response of George 
Summers. 

He immediatly started ; and, from grocery to 
grocery, and from store to store went George, un- 
til he had passed over the entire city; and finally 
returned to Tom's establishment, and pulled from his 
head that which bore some slight evidence of hav- 
ing once been a cap — threw it down upon the coun- 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 335 

I 

ter — wiped off the sweat from his his face with the 
sleeve of his old coat, and exclaimed, " Well, Tom ; 
this is a terrible state of things ! the devil will 
certainly get all those fanatics ! If those that he 
has got could only come back, occasionally, a few 
of them would soon teach those here to mind their 
own business ; then we could get a glass when we 
wished it. Well, now Tom, I dont like to walk 
out home five miles, without a horn. I could stand 
it, but then I have had none for six months, and 
that is most too long between drams ; I can get it 
out where I live in some of the groceries a3 soon 
as I reach home, that is certain. 

" It is very certain you will be unable to get the 
article anywhere," again gruffly rejoined Tom. 

George Summers started for the village in which 
his family lived ; and though he had not seen nor 
heard from them, nor any of them, since his incar- 
ceration, he went not directly to his home, but to 
a grocery where he had been accustomed to get 
liquor at his pleasure, but found none — from thence 
he went to every grocery and store in the village 
with a like result. 

"Well," said George Summers; " things aint as 
they used to was, that am sartin ; but I know 
bravely where I can get some. Old Ben Burns 
keeps the article. This devilish fanaticism can't 
possibly have reached the still-house of that old 
saint. It is some distance up there — let me see, 
about six miles — can you stand that, George, be- 



336 THE UNJUST JUDGE, 

lore you see the babies ? It is pretty hard, yet it 
is harder to do without the liquor ; so here we go." 

And away started George Summers to old Ben- 
jamin Bum's distillery, but when he reached the 
spot where strife, contention, debauchery and crime, 
from its lightest to its darkest shades — where dis- 
ease, death, and damnation, had, for nearly a half 
century, been manufactured — to his great disap- 
pointment, and chagrin, he found the fire had been 
put out by this messenger from the throne of the 
Eternal, the—Maine Law — which had for many 
long years heated the worm that has for ages upon 
ages thrown its fatal coils around fallen humanity. 

George Summers stretched himself up — took off 
his old cap— wiped with the sleeve of his old coat, 
the prespiration that was oozing from every pour 
of his face — while he ran his fingers through the 
dishev.eled hair that hung over a high and massive 
fore-head, patting the ground with his left foot he 
was heard to say, "Well, this is truly a new order 
of things, no whiskey in the city, no whiskey in 
the village, no whiskey in the country. Even old 
Vesuvius, has ceased to vomet forth its blessings 
upon the poor as well as the rich man. It is now 
vacated — inhabited alone by the bat and night- 
hawk. I would prefef the work-house at once to 
such liberty. But I'll go and see John Taite, Pete 
Craft, and Jake Rex, and know what account they 
have of matters and things. I guess, if they can 
live without, I can." And accordingly away he 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 337 

went in pursuit of his old companions in degrada- 
tion ; and first came up to Tait, who was a black- 
smith, and who wielded the sledge in a manner that 
would have done honor to old Vulcan himself. 

"Jack," said George, as he entered the shop, 
* how the old Harry do you get along these times, 
without a little of the 'o be joyful?"' 

" Very well," replied John Tait. 

"Very well, eh!" rejoined George Summers, "then 
you must have changed very much since I knew 
you. I would not give two figs for as much of this 
kind of liberty as you could write in fifty declara- 
tions of Independence. Our fathers fought and 
bled and died in vain, that we might enjoy liberty, 
if these old blue-stockings — these fanatical Puri- 
tans — these long-faced religionists can dictate what 
we shall eat and wdiat we shall drink." 

"No," said Tait, " you can eat what you choose, 
and drink what you please, provided you let that 
drink alone which makes a fool of you — injures, 
most sadly, yourself and family, and not unfre- 
quentty your neighbors." 

" Can it be possible," exclaimed George, "that 
John Taite has become one of those long-faced 
saints — advocating the Maine Law ? I reckon 
Pete Craft, Jake Rex, and the other boys have all 
gone over to the enemy — worse and worse," said 
George Summers, while he looked the very im~. 
personation of disappointment and vexation, 
22 



338 THE tfNHXST JUDGE. 

" Yes," said Tait, " if you are in favor of 
drinking, then they are all against you. George, 
you couldn't get Pete, or Jake, or any of them, to 
drink a dram for a kingdom." 

" I'll bet my cap, old Vulcan," said George, " any 
of them, or even yourself, could be bought with a 
very small kingdom — not bigger than my potatoe 
patch." 

"Why," said Tait, " they are all industrious 
men, comfortably living and handsomely sustain- 
ing themselves and their families, sober at first 
from necessity, but afterwards from choice ; now 
educating their children and living like men, and 
not like brutes." 

" Weil," said George Summers, as he drew his 
left hand two or three times over his face and 
eyes, u I believe 111 go home and see how things 
look there." 

" I would exhort you," said Tait, " to let liquor 
alone, if I did not know you couldn't get any, and 
therefore you must keep sober, for the same rea- 
son that myself and others did. After a time you 
could not be persuaded, nor even driven back, to 
your cups." 

;i Wife, how do you do?" said George Summers, 
as he entered the door of his former home. 

u Why," George Summers," exclaimed his wife, 
" by what accident is it you are sober?" while 
she seemed to say through every feature of her 
face, " my good fellow you are done drinking, so 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 339 

long as you live in this land of wholesome laws." 

George understood her quizzical glances, and 
replied, " not by accident, Madam, I thank you — 
bat from sheer necessity." 

George Summers was a first class mechanist, 
and as soon as the question was settled that he 
could have no more liquor to use as a beverage, 
he immediately applied for, and procured, a situ- 
ation at good wages, in an extensive machine 
shop of the village in which he resided ; where 
he continued to work for some six or seven weeks, 
when in consequence of breakage, George w r as 
for several days out of employ, and therefore re- 
turned home. 

While playing with his boy upon the carpet, 
(for carpet as well as many other luxuries they had 
procured soon after George became temperate,) 
he commenced laughing outright, and so immode- 
rately as to attract the attention of Mrs. Sum- 
mers, who inquired what it meant. 

" I was thinking," exclaimed George Summers, 
11 if I were to put on that splendid suit of black 
and walk up into the city, as sober as a judge 
ought to be, what a sensation I would produce. — 
It would make the Governor and Warden of the 
prison stare, I'll venture." 

George rose from the floor, put on his Sunday 

regalia, and started for the city ; soon after he 

reached which, he was passing the Governor of 

the State, who, in conversation with some gentle- 

22* 



340 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

man, remarked that he had it in his power at one 
time just previous to the passage of the Maine 
Law, to defeat the Bill, and he regretted that he 
had not slaughtered the thing. 

It sounded upon the ear of George Summers 
like a voice from the haunts of crime and folly, 
misery and woe ; and with the swift winged speed 
of thought, he reviewed his life previous to the 
passage of the law, and contrasted it with that 
portion spent in the discharge of duty and the 
s-ervice of virtue ; w r hile he fixed his large, pier- 
cing black eyes upon the Governor, and exclaimed, 
" I'll pay your excellency that money very soon. :r 

" What money ?" inquired the Governor. 

" Why, the price and cost of divers and sundry 
articles, too tedious to mention." 

" You talk in enigmas, George, entirely beyond 
my comprehension," rejoined the Governor. 

" It is as plain as a pike staff, Governor, if you 
had it in your power to defeat the Maine Law, I 
owe you for this suit of black, for this beaver, sir. 
for these boots, sir; for several fine dresses for my 
wife, for many comforts, conveniences and even 
luxuries for my family ; but above all, and price- 
less beyond the value of rubies, the consciousness 
that I'm a man, and my reason is constantly on 
her throne, while I am not liable to do wrong to 
myself or others." 

The Governor looked at George Summers for 
several consecutive minutes, lost in the thick laby - 



TUE UNJUST JUDGE. 341 

rinths of thought, without uttering a syllable, but 
finally broke the ominous silence by exclaiming 
to his friend in a loud and excited tone cf voice, 
accompanied with energetic and violent gesticula- 
tions, " Such a salvation is of more value than all 
the inconveniences that could grow out of enact- 
ing and enforcing this law. One such change in. 
finitely over-balances and outweighs all cavils and 
objections that could be interposed by the most 
captious. With such evidence of its salutary 
effect, I would not at this moment for my right 
arm, have defeated the Bill." 

If statesmen, and men in elevated positions in 
life, could lose sight of party incentives, party 
trammels and party hindrances, and could realize 
the manifold evils of excessive drinking, they 
would as they could, cut off the streams of this 
vice by at once drying up the fountain. 

'Where is the capacious, cultivated and benevo- 
lent intellect, not a slave of the despot, intempe- 
rance, who can in candor say the human family, 
or an individual member of it, has derived any 
benefit from the use of alcoholic drinks as a beve- 
rage ; while the countless and never ending ages 
of eternity, will be too short to reveal the innu- 
merable wrongs growing out of the use of spiritu- 
ous liquors. They can alone be useful to man as 
a remedial agent, and ought to be confined, like 
other powerful remedial agents, to the shelf of 
the druggist ; and then, and not until then, can 



842 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

the blessing of the discovery of the distillation of 
ardent spirits be ascertained. 

Could the venders of alcoholic drinks fully real- 
ize all the aggravated wrong they are inflicting 
upon society, the millions of oaths uttered under 
the inspiration of the potations they had dealt out, 
the untold numbers of bleeding hearts, lacerated 
by the traffic ; the hosts upon hosts of youth who, 
in consequence of the terrible inroads upon their 
rights, by this^ demon, have been permitted to 
grow to manhood, in the midst of ignorance and 
vice ; and hence have been visited by the rewards 
of crime and degradation — the hecatombs they 
have offered upon the altar of their avarice and 
cupidity — murdered by a gradual, often slow, but 
certain process — -could this dark, but too faithful 
picture, dance in review before their mental vis- 
ion, would they not, if a spark of humanity 
glowed in their bosoms; if even judgment was left 
unimpaired, whatever may have been the fate of 
conscience; desist from an avocation which poste- 
rity will regard in a no less favorable light than 
many crimes, the wages of which now are, banish 
ment from society, and confinement in a felon's 
cell. 






CHAPTER XXVII. 

JLives of great men all remind as, 

We can make eur lives sublime ; 
And departing leave behind us, 

Toot-prmts on the sands of time. 
Foot-prints that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
S ome forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, may take heart again. — Longfelloic . 

'Some weeks after the Maine Law had been 
enacted and gone into force, Judge Jones, chanced 
to be stopping in a village over night, in a remote 
part of the State, where two somewhat extensive 
liquor dealers had been boasting of their intention 
to disregard the enactment, and avowed their de- 
termination to hurl defiance in the very teeth of 
the law. Of these facts, Judge Jones, during the 
evening became acquainted, and had an interview 
on the following morning, with the officer charged 
with enforcing the enactment ; after obtaining 
which, he said: " Sir, procure your process and 
authorize me to accompany you in the discharge 
of your official duty, and you have my word for it, 
that before the expiration of three hours those 
liquor stores will be emptied of their contents." 



344 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

" But," said the officer, " one of these men is a 
desperado, and will shoot ! Some person will be 
killed." 

" He is not insane, I imagine ? " very coolly re- 
plied Jones. 

" No," said the officer, " but he is notorious for 
his physical power and malicious heart." 

" Evince a disposition to enforce this matter," said 
Jones, " and he will quail before the superior pow- 
er and majesty of the law." 

" But he don't know what fear is, and is as 
courageous as a tiger." 

"Well, well," said Judge Jones, " do as I direct, 
and he will soon know how to submit — will soon 
rival the pet kitten in docility." 

The officer, accordingly, procuredhis papers and 
summoned the Judge to his aid, and was about in- 
creasing his posse, when Judge Jones protested, 
saying, "We are equal to this work. Make more 
show of the power and majesty of the law, and 
less display of physical force, and you will be much 

less liable to be met and reDelled with brute force." 

j. 

Jones and the officer immediately repaired to the 
liquor establishment of the man whom the officer 
most dreaded, and found him standing upon the 
threshold of his rum-shop, armed to the teeth, hav- 
ing been previously notified, by some of his satellites, 
of his impending danger ; swearing vengeance 
and death to the first man who should attempt to 
invade his rights, 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 345 

Judge Jones stepped up to him, and thus ad- 
dressed him : "Sir, we have come here clothed 
with the power of the law, and resistance is folly. 
We are unarmed — have nothing, save the strong 
arm of the law : but, should you resist, you will 
realize, to your sorrow, that it is more than a Da- 
mascus blade." After saying which, with firmness, 
resolution, and courage beaming from every line- 
ament of his face, he deliberately walked up to Mr, 
Mars, acting upon the motto, " that to falter was 
to fail," and passed between him and the door 
post, into the store — took up a small cask, the first 
he came to, and threw it into the street, without 
being very particular whether or not it came in 
contact with its courageous owner; and by the 
time Jones had another in readiness to hurl into 
the street, its late owner, now interested in the 
safety of his lower extremities, gave way, and the 
door was entered by the officer; who, with two or 
three others that had came to their assistance, 
soon rolled over two hundred casks of the " dear 
critter" into the street, from whence it was carried 
to a place of deposit prepared for the purpose ; 
and, in due time, condemned and empted into its 
wonted place — the gutter. But what was unusual, 
it failed to take with it erring men. 

While Jones was passing through one part of 
the State, encouraging the enforcement of the law, 
when necessary, as w 7 e have seen, by " bearding the 
lion in his den," Leblond, and several other dis- 



346 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

tinguished champions of the measure, were simi- 
larly engaged in other portions of the State. 

Some few months after the law went into force, 
Jones, Leblond, Jew r ett, and Tompkins,' met to 
compare notes — all anxious that the operation of 
the law should not disappoint the hopes of the 
friends of this great measure. 

" Jones," said Leblond, after having been wrapt 
in thought; and, for many minutes, apparently 
unconscious of the presence of his friends, "I have 
just been contrasting this interview with the one 
we had at the city, some months since, when I 
ordered the oysters, as you will recollect." 

" These disgraceful occurrences have ceased to 
have a place in my memory. 1 seldom permit my 
mind to recur to them; and never, except to stimu- 
late me to deeds of more noble daring," replied the 
Judge. 

" What a fearful, and most terrible account will 
the bar have to render at the great day of recli- 
ning," said Jewett. 

"Won't politicians have a still greater ? v said 
Tompkins. 

"But," replied Leblond, " all lawyers are politi- 
cians, You can scarcely find a lawyer in the State 
who is not quite as much of a politician as law r yer ; 
and wields, if not elsewhere, in his particular local- 
ity, no little influence." 

"Yes," ssid Judge Jones, "if the united bar of 
the country would give their undivided support t@ 



f 



THE UNJUST JUDGE, 34? 

it, an entirely prohibitory enactment, embodying 
the spirit and principles of the Maine Law, would 
grace the the statute books of every State of this 
vast confederacy before twelve moons would wax 
and wane." 

" That's as true as revelation," said Jewett.— 
"No body of men in society exert the influence — 
indeed, all other classes combined, if you except the 
press, are incapable of exerting the same amount 
of influence in the enactment and enforcement of 
laws, that the combined effort of the bar can put 
forth." 

" Well, gentlemen," remarked Tompkins, " now 
to the object of this meeting. How does the law 
operate so far as you have been able to judge from 
a transit through the State ? " 

" Gloriously, most gloriously!" said Judge Jones, 
In the small city of D., numbering a population of 
about twenty-five thousand, I was informed by his 
Honor, the Mayor, that at the time the law took 
effect there were in full operation, at least three 
hundred groceries— -at this moment, gentlemen , 
there is not one. These groceries would average 
from the sale of liquor at least two dollars and fif- 
ty cents per day, and that is moderate — less would 
make the traffic unprofitable — and we have the 
sum of two hundred and seventy-three thousand, 
seven hundred and fifty dollars. This may appear 
rather startling, but it is the computation of hii 
Honor, the Mayor; a very intelligent and candid 



348 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

man. Now, when we contemplate the fact, that 
we have diverted an annual expenditure of over 
a quarter of a million of dollars in a city of only 
twenty-five thousand ; and, that instead of its run- 
ning down the throats of bad men making them 
worse — a complete loss — it is now expended in 
food, clothing, and education, for destitute families; 
while their hearts and heads are better cared for. 
If this was an isolated instance in our State, w 7 e, 
gentlemen, would be more than compensated for 
all the sacrifices we have made. But, in large 
cities and small towns the effect is proportionate; 
and hence, who can compute its blessings upon the 
people of our State ? " 

" My testimony," said Leblond, would not essen- 
tially differ from the Judges ; and I will not, there- 
fore, occupy your time by narrating it. I must, 
however, mention one little incident. While pas- 
sing along, I met with an old college acquaintance, 
a lawyer of some distinction, who was opposed to 
this temperance movement — a kind, amiable man, 
and unusually interested in the welfare of his fam- 
ily — after he had offered some reasons against the 
law, which doubtless appeared to him cogent ; with- 
out attempting to answer his arguments, I said, 
" My dear sir, you and I have had sense sufficient 
to avoid the intoxicating cup; what assurance have 
we that our sons will escape the sin of drunken- 
ness ? We can not forsee the ten thousand temp- 
tations that may beset them, and guard them 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 349 

against yielding ? But, should our counsel save 
them, what evidence have we that our daughters 
may not form alliances with gentlemen who have 
not had the advantage of wise and early counsel, 
and consequently become drunkards ? — a calamity 
that no man wguW feel more poignantly than 
yourself. 

" Well," said he-, hesitating some, " that's a fact! 
I have never looked upon it in that light. I don't 
know but the safety of all requires the removal of 
the temptation, and all that might lead to tempta- 
tion. Drunkenness is a terrible vice ! You are 
probably not far wrong. Drinking, even moder- 
ately, benefits no man.'" 

" I find the law not in advance of public opin- 
ion, but sustained wherever I have been," said 
Jewett. So frightful has been the destruction 
from this cause, of the citizens of our State, that 
any measure calculated to save, attracts attention 
and meets with favor. 

" Sir Mathew Hale, after twenty years experi- 
ence as a judge upon the bench, remarks, "That 
if all the murders and manslaughters and burgla- 
ries and robberies, riots and tumults, and other 
great enormities, which had been committed with- 
in that time, were divided into five parts, four 
would be found to have been the result of intern- 
perance.' " And," continued Jewett, " the masses 
of our people becoming quite intelligent in this 
age of progress, have improved upon the die- 



350 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

covery of Sir Matthew, and generally ascribe more 
than nine-tenths of all the crime committed, to 
the use of intoxicating drinks, and hence invoke 
the aid of any measure the tendency of which is 
to remove this evil." 

" The law works admirably," said Tompkins. — 
[* In a tour through the State, I have not seen a 
drop of liquor, nor a drunken man, except in one 
village ; but more of that hereafter. In the county 

of R , I was told by the Jailor that the Jail was 

entirely empty; an occurrence which had not be- 
fore happened within the last twenty-five years. 
And," continued he, " I cannot forego the pleas- 
ure of relating a little scene that occurred in the 
western part of the State, 

' All of which I saw, and part of which I was/ 

though I should incur the risk of trespassing upon 
your patience. 

" Stopping for the night in the flourishing vil- 
lage of M , I was induced, from several causes, 

to lecture upon the importance of enforcing the 
law. Next morning I was roused from a pleasant 
slumber, by a gentle rap at the door of my apart- 
ment, when I immediately rose and prepared to 
receive my visitor. Upon opening the door, to 
my great astonishment, there stood a pensive little 
girl with down cast countenance, clad in the habi- 
liments of the most abject poverty. I took her by 
the hand and kindly inquired the object of her 
mission, so early in the morning. 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 351 

'Mr. Tompkins,' said she, -I was afraid you 
would leave town before I could get up ; and 
when I went to bed last night, I thought I could 
keep awake all night, and as soon as it was day- 
light, I could come up, but I couldn't keep awake.' 

In as tender a tone as I could assume, I enquired 
what was the trouble. 

"Won't you see my pa before you leave ? May 
be you can coax him not to drink any more ? Oh, 
if he would do as you told everybody, last night, 
how happy we would be ! Sister and I had pa go 
with us to the lecture, and when he came home he 
cried for more than an hour ; and we all cried, and 
pa promised mother he would quit drinking; but, 
as soon as he goes down street he gets into some 
of the wricked taverns, or groceries and forgets his 
promise, and we are then all so unhappy." 

I enquired how long he had been drinking. 

" It has been about tw 7 o years. When he com- 
menced we had a good home, but pa went to drink- 
ing and paid no attention to his business ; and Mr. 
Jacobs, the tavern-keeper, two months ago, sold 
our house to pay for whiskey pa had got from him; 
and now, every time Mr. Jacob's little girls meet 
us they say ' your father is a drunkard, and you 
are dirty, ragged, little girls, and w^e w T on't play 
with you.' Mr. Tompkins, is not the man who sells 
the liquor to pa, as bad as he ? Sister and I can't 
help pa's drinking; we coax him every day to quit; 
and we pray for him every night, and it is too bad 



o52 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

for Mr. Jacob's little girls to abuse us so,, ain't it, 
Mr. Tompkins ? Won't you go down and see pa? 
He hasn't been drinking any this morning. Ma 
told rne about the Maine law, but I could'nt under- 
stand it. Will it hang all the wicked men that 
sell liquor? I don't like it if it does that, Mr. 
Tompkins. But they are no better than pa, and 
other poor men they will kill, if the Maine law 
don't come and stop them.' " 

u Here this poor, crushed child wept as if her 
little heart would break; and, though you may re- 
gard it as an indication of weakness in me, I cried, 
too ; nor could I have avoided it had a kingdom 
been tendered me. After I became calm, for it 
was some time before I could either conceive a 
thought or give utterance to one : I said, ' go home, 
my dear, and be a good girl, and in less than three 
days your father will again be a sober man ; for, 
before I leave the village, we will close the liquor 
establishments and remove all temptation from 
him.' " 

" Did you redeem your promise?" enquired Judge 
Jones. 

" The first day was sufficient for the work! We 
made sad havoc among the groceries ; and on yes- 
terday, I received a letter, from the little girl," — 
which he drew from his pocket and read, amid the 
.*obs and tears of these men who have left their 

" Foot-prints on the sands of time." 






